
Class __LB3^14A 
Book KJ^. 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE LIGHTING OF 
SCHOOL-ROOMS 



THE LIGHTING OF 

SCHOOL-EOOMS 

A MANUAL FOR 

SCHOOL BOAEDS, ARCHITECTS, 

SUPERINTENDENTS AND TEACHERS 



STUART H:- ROWE, Ph.D. 

SUPERVISING PRINCIPAL OF THE LOVELL SCHOOL DISTRICT, NEW HAVEN, 

CONN., AND LECTURER ON PEDAGOGY IN YALE UNIVERSITY 

AUTHOR OF " THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE 

CHILD AND HOW TO STUDY IT " 



LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO, 

91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 

LONDON AND BOMBAY 

1904 



LIBRaKV ^i CONGRESS 
Two Cep{es Received 

MAR 18 1904 

\ Copyrignt Entry 
CLASS ^ XXc. No. 
rriFY a' 






Copyright, 1904, by 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

AU rights reserved 



TROW DIRECTORY 
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 



PREFACE 

It has been common report that the principles on 
which the lighting of a school depended were not 
knoAvn and that the whole subject was still in a 
chaotic state. My studies had, on the contrary, led 
me to the conclusion that all the important principles 
were not only definitely known but were capable of 
actual demonstration. Accordingly I made it my 
business to test this conclusion carefully, to ascertain 
the facts and the reasons underlying them. The re- 
sult demonstrated quite thoroughly that the main 
problems of school lighting are solved already, and 
solved practically. 

It must be admitted that one would " never guess 
it " from an inspection of an average half dozen or 
half hundred school-houses, but the fact remains that 
the mechanics of light is adequately known, that, given 
the data, the lighting value of a window of a certain 
size at a certain location can be readily ascertained 
and the effect of obstructions measured, and that the 
typical shapes possible for a building have all been 
tried. The problem for the future is simply to get all 
concerned to know and respect the requirements. 
There is no reason for failure except ignorance, crim- 



VI PREFACE 

inal negligence, and misplaced economy— no more ex- 
cuse for a poorly lighted school-building than there is 
for an unsafe bridge. Somebody is to blame. 

It is tlie purpose of this book to present as clearly 
as possible the principles on which the lighting of a 
school-building depends, and enough of argument to 
establish them without becoming unnecessarily prolix. 
If any apology is needed for the dabbling of a peda- 
gogue in this problem of school architecture, let it 
be found in the historic fact that the architects have 
left it to the teachers to make demands, which they 
granted or not, according to their convenience. Prac- 
tically every great advance in hygiene as applied to 
school architecture has come as the result of pains- 
taking investigation on the part either of educators 
or physicians and the scientists whose aid may have 
been enlisted. 

It was only recently that I visited a new school- 
building connected with a very generously endowed 
institution. The school itself cost several hundred 
thousand dollars and was a comparatively small school 
at that. The plans had undoubtely been drawn by an 
expert architect and supervised and studied by an ex- 
perienced corps of advanced educators. The day was 
rainy, and the rooms were dark ; but the cause was not 
hard to determine. Neighboring buildings obstructed 
the light and the upper three square feet of each win- 
dow (that yielding by far the best light) had been cut 
off from the window proper, and then, to crown all 



PREFACE VU 

stupidity, curtained off permanently by tacking shade 
material around it. When attention was called to it, 
the blunder was immediately seen and acknowledged. 
Similar errors in schools and college buildings could 
be cited almost without end. It is accordingly the 
design of this book so to free the principles involved 
from the murkiness of technique that it may prove 
to be a guide not merely to school-boards, superin- 
tendents, inspectors, and architects, but may quicken 
the teacher's perception of errors where they exist 
and lead him to a fuller appreciation of the necessity 
of his co-operation in the plans made for the lighting 
of his room and his school. 

It is all the more necessary that teachers know the 
requirements of a well-lighted school-room, inasmuch 
as they almost never work under the direction of the 
architect, but in their own way make use of the ap- 
pliances furnished. If it is true (and I believe it is) 
that the teacher is indirectly responsible for the ma- 
jority of defective eyes found among pupils enjoying 
the advantages of well-lighted modern buildings, it 
is of the highest importance that he know both the 
requirements and how to make intelligent use of the 
means given him for living up to them. 

No effort has been spared to include every point 
of vital importance, a thorough search being made 
through all the standard authorities. These points 
have been examined critically, and some which were 
found to rest on false principles or assumptions, and 



Vlll PREFACE 

others which were amply covered by principles al- 
ready stated, have been omitted for the sake of 
greater clearness in the essentials. Only such titles 
have been included in the bibliography as have been 
actually used by the author or are regarded by him 
as absolutely essential for any extended study of the 
subject. For example, I have a list of forty-six titles 
of contributions made on this and kindred subjects 
by Dr. Herman Colin. Of these only two are in- 
cluded. 

I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Archi- 
tects C. B. J. Snyder and L. W. Robinson for many 
courtesies, to Dr. S. D. Risley for his Introduction, to 
Dr. W. T. Harris for assistance in dealing with light- 
ing problems in soft-coal centres, and to Dr. Charles 
H. Judd for help with the proof. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface v 

Introduction by S. D. Risley, M.D. ... 3 
Preliminary 8 

Section I. The Selection op the Site . . 10 

Principles Involved. — Size. — Sunlight. — Application of 
Principle that Neighboring Buildings must be Distant 
not less than Twice their Height. — Effect of Corner 
Lot. — Direction of the Frontage. — Difficulty in Deal- 
ing with Too Small a Site. 

Section II. The Architect's Part ... 30 

A. In Constructing a New Building : General Sanitary 
Requirements. — Aim of the Lighting. — The Lighting 
as Affected by the Type of the Building. — Light 
should be Put in the Rooms Used for Class-room 
Purposes — Amount of Window Space. — Dimensions 
of the Rooms. — Location of the Light. — Reasons for 
Unilateral Lighting from the Left. — Bilateral Light- 
ing : (a) from Right and Left, (b) from Left and 
Rear — Soft Coal and Left and Rear Lighting. — Over- 
head Lighting. — Summary Regarding Direction of 
the Light. — Location of Windows. — Application to a 
Standard Room — Adaptation to Cold Climates. — No 
Arching of Windows Permissible unless on Upper 
Floors. — AVidth and Structure of Window. — Secur- 
ing Unity in the Lighting. — Revolving Sash. — Value 
of Clear Glass. — Columns, Pillars to be Avoided. — 
Color of Ceiling and Side Walls. — Curtaining Black- 
boards. — The Shades. — Unforeseen Obstructions. — 
The Furnishing of Rooms. — Artificial Distribution 
of the Liglit : (a) the Prism, (b) Reflectors, (c) Glass 
Brick. — How to Reduce the Light.— Artificial Il- 
lumination. 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

B. In Remodeling ati Old Building : How to T^iscover 
the Cause of Defective Light. — Application of De- 
vices. — Typical Deficiencies, how Removed : (a) Ob- 
structions, (b) Wasted Light, (c) Too Meagre Win- 
dow Surface. — Serious Defects. — Extending Window 
to Ceiling and Use of Small Mulliou for Piers. — 
Light from Wrong Direction. — Similar Methods in 
all Cases. 

Section IIL The Teacher's Duty ... 67 

Charges Made against Teacher.— Heads should be Kept 
Fifteen Inches from Paper. — Best Arrangement of 
Shades should be Studied. — Failure to Adjust Desks 
or make Wisest Disposition of them if not Adjust- 
able. — The Poorly Lighted Desks should be Known. 
— Condition of Eyes should be Noted. — Hygiene of 
the Eye ought to be Taught. 

Appendix I. A MATHEMATicAii Demonstration 

AND ITS Corollary 75 

Appendix II. How to Test the Light ... 78 

Appendix III. How to Test the Children's Eyes 83 

Bibliography . . 87 

Window Materials ,... = .. 90 

Index .......... 91 



LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS 

FIG. PAGE 

1. Effect of obstructing building 10 

2. Effect of hill and obstructing building .... 11 

3. Effect of a hillside with a rise of one foot in every 

two 12 

4. Space needed for 65 x SO foot school-house . . 15 

5. Increase in the size of a site for practical lighting 

purposes made by streets about a corner ... 16 

6. L-shaped building 17 

7. H-shaped building 18 

8, 9. Two forms of half quadrangle buildings. Dotted 

lines show blind walls 22 

10. Perspective of an H-shaped building . . Facing 22 "^ 

11. Second story plan of H-shaped building .... 23 

12. A kindergarten in an H-shaped building Facing 24 ^ 

13. Modificatidn of half-cjuadrangle to meet peculiar 

conditions 26 

14. Perspective of large half-quadrangle building 

Facing 26 

15. Detail of second story plan of building with six- 

teen rooms and assembly-room on lot 150 feet 
square, enclosed on three sides 27 

16. Plan of building lighted from all sides and having 

four rooms on each floor 28 

17. Plan of small building lighted from two sides only 29 



Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG. PAGE 

18. Diagram to show that left and rear Ughting is prac- 

tically lighting from the left for seats farthest 
from the window 37 

19. Example of well-lighted high school . . Facing 38 

20. Sketch of outside wall of school-rooms, showing 

possible window space 42 

21. Diagram showing light saved by beveled piers 

and muUions 45 

22. Mullions after patterns by Briggs 46 

23a. The revolving sash. Use 47 

236. The revolving sash. Detail 48 

24a. Doubled curtain shades. Rolled up 52 

246. Double curtain shades. Partly drawn .... 53 

25. Side and front views of four-inch sections of prism 

glass Facing 54 

26. A prism-glass canopy. A room made fit for 

school purposes only by use of prism glass 

Facing 56'^ 

27. Hennig's daylight reflector 56 

28. Glass brick, a block made for use in heavy walls 56 

29. Two old style windows with wide pier between 

them 66 

30. A class using their rules to measure the distance 

the eyes must be kept from their work Facing 68 

31. Mr. Straight and Mr. Crooked 69 

32. Figure showing sky-angle visible at farthest desk 76 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL- 
ROOMS 



INTRODUCTION 

By S. D. RISLEY, M.D., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Educational institutions must always furnish a 
most imposing factor in the social structure of any 
complex community. In the United States, for ex- 
ample, approximately one-fifth of the entire popula- 
tion is enrolled as pupils in our schools, seminaries, 
and colleges. It is obvious that these institutions, de- 
signed for the training of those to whom the destiny 
of the nation is to be speedily committed, should be 
safeguarded at every point; for, not only should the 
moral and mental education of the rising generation 
be wisely conducted, but it is essential that the great- 
est care should be exercised to prevent physical de- 
generacy during the years devoted to school-life, 
which are also the most important years for physi- 
ological growth and development. It is not unreason- 
able to expect that some degree of physical deteriora- 
tion must result when young children are deprived of 
the careless freedom of the nursery and playground, 
and for many hours daily subjected to the confine- 
ment of the school-room with its tasks and cares; but 

3 



4 INTRODUCTION 

careful observation has shown that a considerable 
percentage of those who enter the schools in appar- 
ently good health soon manifest impaired general 
vigor, acquire distorted spines, become near-sighted, 
and develop a group of more or less distressing 
nervous symptoms. It is plain that this deplorable 
state of affairs must, for the children affected, not 
only deter their school progress, but plant deeply 
the seeds for a growth of future ills. The schools, 
therefore, afford a most important and fruitful field 
for the application of sanitary science. 

The purpose of the present treatise is to teach an 
important phase of school hygiene, viz., the lighting 
of school-buildings, a purpose which the author has 
accomplished in a thorough and satisfactory manner. 
That such a work is greatly needed will find ample 
demonstration in a visit to the recitation-rooms of 
many of our educational institutions, and especially 
to those of small, so-called private schools, where, too 
often, no intelligent thought has been given, either to 
the quantity of light admitted or the relation of the 
desks to the windows. The student is often compelled 
to work facing the light or with the point of pen or 
pencil constantly in the shadow of the hand or body. 
There is no longer any question as to the harmful 
influence upon the eyes of school-children of insuffi- 
ciently or improperly lighted rooms. 

During the latter half of the last century great 
advance was made in our knowledge of school hy- 



INTRODUCTION O 

giene, the result being a marked improvement in tlie 
arcliiteetiire of school-buildings, better paper, and 
more suitable type for text-books, and a wiser ar- 
rangement of seats and desks, both in their relation to 
the source of light and in their adaptability to the 
varying size of the children. It is interesting to note 
that this earnest crusade for the improvement of the 
general hygienic environment of the student during 
school hours received its impetus from the careful 
study of the eyes of school-children. In the early 
part of the nineteenth century it had been observed 
in England that there seemed to be some definite rela- 
tion between near-sight (myopia) and the pursuits 
of the educated classes in the community. Later ex- 
tensive and painstaking studies were made in the 
schools of Europe and this country, until at the 
present time more than two hundred thousand eyes 
have been examined. The result fully confirmed the 
earlier observation, since it revealed a steadily in- 
creasing percentage of near-sight as the pupils ad- 
vanced in age and school progress, until in the Ger- 
man universities approximately sixty per cent, of the 
pupils had acquired myopic eyes. 

The significance of these observations rests in the 
fact that near-sight is caused by the stretching of the 
coats of the eyeball, and is associated with and de- 
pends upon a congestion and inflammation of the 
inner or lining membranes. Myopia is, therefore, to 
be regarded as a disease which impairs the integrity 



6 INTRODUCTION 

of the eye. It is very rarely present in young 
children, but usually begins during the early period 
of school-life, from the seventh to the twelfth year 
of age, while the tissues are still tender and yield 
readily under the protracted strain of school work. 
The improvements in the hygiene of the schools 
were introduced in the hope of arresting the evil. 
Later examinations of the eyes of children occupying 
the buildings where all these improvements had been 
secured were, however, in some measure disappoint- 
ing as regards the arrest of myopia and led to further 
research. It was first pointed out in this country 
as the result of extensive studies made in the schools 
of Philadelphia, that the eyes which became near- 
sighted under the strain of school work were con- 
genitally defective, while the normal or model eye 
remained unchanged and enjoyed throughout school 
life a higher acuity of vision and comparative free- 
dom from pain and disease. Out of this demonstra- 
tion grew the suggestion that, not only was it im- 
portant that the school-room should be sufficiently 
and suitably lighted, the books well printed on good 
paper, and the seats properly arranged; but that no 
child should be permitted to enter upon the coming 
struggle with books until the eyes had been shown 
by careful examination to be fitted to undertake safe- 
ly the strain to be imposed ; if found to be defective, 
the parents were to be apprised of the fact and ad- 
vised to seek professional advice. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

Fortunately, the congenital defects which were 
shown to be the underlying factor in the breakdown 
of certain eyes can, in the great majority of cases, be 
corrected by properly adjusted glasses, and by this 
means the danger of acquiring near-sight averted. 

It is obvious from the foregoing that any measure 
designed to prevent the occurrence of myopia is to 
be commended as being in the line of social progress, 
since impaired vision must in some degree prove a 
handicap in the career of the individual. 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL- 
ROOMS 

Preliminary 

Modern investigation of the eye has made three 
statements indisputable. 

1. A large percentage of the children in our schools 
have defective eyesight. 

2. This percentage increases as the children ad- 
vance from one school year to the next. 

3. The cause has been traced in part to the schools. 
These facts have startled the school architects and 

have led to many and decided reforms in connection 
with the lighting of school-buildings. They have yet 
to disturb seriously the equanimity of the buj^ers of 
land for schools, and they certainly have not aroused 
any great wave of reform among teachers generally. 
It will be seen that there must be a combination 
of three requirements for the proper lighting of a 
school-room. The character of the site must be 
suitable and large enough to admit of a building 
which would accommodate the stipulated number of 
children with a view to effective lighting, the archi- 

8 



PRELIMINARY 9 

tectural design of the school-house must be made with 
the idea of furnishing light enough not only under 
favorable circumstances but even on dark days, while 
the teacher's part in the lighting of school-rooms 
is almost as important as that of the architect, since 
a failure to co-operate with the architect and follow 
out his plan for securing and controlling the light, 
and a failure to see that children avail themselves of 
it properly, will work most serious results despite the 
best efforts of the architect. The most sceptical must 
be convinced by the evidence of their own eyes, if 
they investigate at all, that not only is this failure 
of the teacher to do his part a fact, but that it ranks 
second to the work of the architect in its responsi- 
bility for the myopia that is developed in the schools. 
With the improvement in school architecture now 
gradually becoming general, the teacher will eventu- 
ally stand alone in this responsibility unless he, 
too, learns to work more intelligently. Although these 
considerations have led to the careful discussion of 
this subject under the three heads — the selection of the 
site of the school-building, the requisites of the archi- 
tecture and equipment, and the teacher's duty, it is 
important that the teacher bear it in mind that he has 
an interest and a responsibility in connection with each 
subdivision. He may have had no hand in the choice 
of a site or in the planning of a building, but unless 
he knows the principles involved, how to test the light, 
and how to test the eyes, he is almost certain to violate 



10 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 



seriously the requirements of school hygiene as applied 
to the lighting of school-rooms. 

The Selection of the Site 

Principles Involved. — Aside from the more obvious 
requirements of the site that it should be at a dis- 




FiG 1. — The point X is the nearest to the obstructing building that 
ground-floor windows intended to light school-rooms can ap- 
proach without violating the first principle of lighting. 



tance from swampy ground or stagnant water, that 
it should be well drained, on a slight elevation if 
possible, free from disturbing noises and odors, and 
that the soil should not be " made ground " filled 
with refuse matter, there is still the question whether 



SELECTION OF THE SITE 



11 



it is large enough to give a building of the proposed 
size unobstructed light. 

It is plain that obstructions will interfere most with 
ground-floor rooms ; but, as these are the most valuable 
otherwise, it has been assumed in general throughout 
the book that the ground floor is to be used for school- 
room purposes. It has also been assumed on hygienic 
grounds that no basement rooms are to be thus used. 




Fig. 2. 



-Point X is nearest approach to obstruction allowable under 
the rule. 



Aside from the length and breadth of the building, 
the amount of land necessary to secure unobstructed 
light depends on the proximity and height of the 
surrounding buildings erected or to be erected. It 
has been found that neighboring buildings sliouM be 
distant not less than twice their height from a school- 
building. (See Fig. 1.) It can be shown mathemat- 
ically (see Appendix I) that the observance of this 
rule will make it possible for each child to see the sky 



12 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

from his desk, if the school-building does not depart 
materially from approved standards. It has been gen- 
erally accepted on empirical grounds that where the 
sky can be seen from each desk the light either is or 
may be sufficient. This rule as to the nearness of an 
adjacent building may be qualified, however, so as to 
refer only to the sides of the school-buildings where 
there are windows ; and it is equally obvious that the 




Fig. 3. — Effect of a hillside with a rise of one foot in every two. 

total height (see Fig. 2) of the obstructing building, 
if it is on higher ground than the school plot, must be 
taken into consideration. A hillside with a rise of one 
foot in every two would offer the same obstruction as 
a building half as high as it is distant. (See Fig. 3.) 
Trees are the only other obstruction possible, and 
control of them should be secured with the purchase 
of the site. If they do not interfere with the lighting 
of the building they may be allowed to stand. If 
their effect is doubtful, they may be left until the 
erection of the building itself determines the matter, 



SELECTION OF THE SITE 13 

but only provided the possibility of removing any 
that are actually interfering with the light is secured. 

Sunlight. — The value of high ground for the school- 
site aside from its insurance of good drainage is evi- 
dent from what has preceded. It not only affords 
more light by reducing the height of obstructions, but 
gives a freer play to the sunlight, the influence of 
which secures immunity from dampness and is sup- 
posed to be directly opposed to the culture of disease 
germs. School-rooms cut off from the sunlight have 
been found to be less healthful than those located 
where the sun has full play. Modern systems of 
building, heating, and ventilation are overcoming 
dampness and are providing for the rapid removal of 
disease germs; but the cheeriness of the sun and its 
actual sanitary aid in buildings too small for econom- 
ical forced ventilation make it a force worth consider- 
ing in the selection of the site. 

Application of the Principle. — There is every reason 
for a generous provision of land for the site. Ordi- 
narily it should be assumed that the school-building 
is to be lighted on all four sides and enough land se- 
cured to insure the application of the rule regarding 
the minimum distance from obstructions. 

A building with four rooms on a floor could hardly 
be less than 80 x 65 feet, leaving out wings for stair- 
ways. If this were to be on a lot entirely enclosed 
by buildings 40 feet high, it is evident that it must 
keep away from them a distance equal to twice their 



14 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

height. We should have, then, in accordance with 
our principle (see Fig. 4) : 

Feet 

Distance from opposing building on north line. . . 80 
Distance from opposing building on south line ... 80 
Length of building 80 

Total length of lot required 240 

In the same way: 

Distance from opposing building on east side .... 80 
Distance from opposing building on west side .... 80 
Width of building 65 

Total width of lot required 225 

The total amount in excess of the length and width 
of the building will be seen, as we should expect, to 
be four times the height of the building. That is, the 
minimum dimensions of the lot would be (80 -f- 160) 
X (65 + 160) or 240 X 225 feet. If the surrounding 
buildings were only 30 feet high the dimensions of 
the lot would be (80 + 120) X (65 + 120) or 200 X 
185. Similarly, if the building has to have six or 
eight rooms on a floor, the size of the site can be 
figured out by adding four times the height of the 
opposing buildings to each dimension of our proposed 
building, which should be about 90 X 100 for six-room 
building and 95 X130 for an eight-room building. 
These calculations, though approximate and assum- 



SELECTION OF THE SITE 



15 



ing the need of light from all sides, will serve to indi- 
cate the amount of land needed in case the opposing 
buildings stand on the property line. The width of 
streets bordering the site and the distance away of 
permanent buildings from the line separating the lot 
on which they stand from that of the school may be 




Fig. 4. — Space needed for 65x80 foot school-house if lighted on 
all sides and entirely shut in by buildings 40 feet high. Shows 
need of another type of building. An H-shaped building (See 
Fig. 7) would occupy two-thirds of the lot. 

credited to the advantage of the school lot. Where 
the land is very expensive an architect should be 
consulted before any reduction in these demands is 
made. He will be able to determine whether by vary- 
ing the type of building the given amount of land 
may be made to suffice or not. 

Corner lots increase by the width of the streets the 



16 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 



size of the lot for practical lighting purposes (see 
Fig. 5), but are often noisy and sometimes more 
expensive than a lot extending through the middle 
of a block from street to street. This has led in 
crowded localities to an adaptation in the form of 
the building. Three types of building are found 




Fig. 5. — Increase in tlie size of a site for practical lighting pur- 
poses made by streets, about a corner. If streets are 75 feet 
wide, lot 125 x 150 equals lot 200 x 225 away from streets. 



most economical, those shaped like the letter L or H, 
and the half-quadrangle. These enable the sides in- 
dicated by the dotted lines of the accompanying fig- 
ures to be " blind " walls which may be put directly 
upon the line of the property. (See Figs. 6 and 7.) 
These plans are adapted rather to large than to small 
buildings. 



SELECTION OF THE SITE 



17 



The Direction of the Frontage. — The question how 
to secure sunlight for all the rooms during some part 
of the day has led to considerable discussion as to 
the best direction for a building to face. It is evident 
that, if the sides of the building coincide with the 
points of the compass, the north side rooms, if lighted 



FIG. 6 



Street 



Fig. 6. — Dotted lines indicate that walls may be blind. 



on but one side, are cut off from the sun, while south 
rooms may be over-supplied in warm weather. To 
avoid this it has been recommended that the build- 
ings face the middle points of the compass. By this 
arrangement each side receives the sun at some time 
during the day. A frontage of this sort makes south- 
east rooms most desirable, southwest next, then the 
northeast, while the northwest is least to be desired, as 
it secures the sun late in the day and the beneficial 



18 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 



effects of the sun are felt only after the children are 
gone. 

These distinctions have been carried by the Ger- 
mans to an unnecessarily fine point and lack prac- 
ticality ; but when such a site can be obtained as read- 
ily as another, it should be given the preference. If, 



street 




Street 



Fig. 7. — Dotted lines indicate that walls may be blind. 



however, it seems unadvisable to light a given build- 
ing from all sides owing to the proximity of obstruc- 
tions, it should be remembered that a school-building 
must use the equivalent of one side, at least, for its 
halls, staircases, office-rooms, etc. These can take 
the side with the least sun and so cut off little or no 
light from the children. Where the building is very 
large with wings, in many cases it is next to impossi- 
ble to secure the sun for each room. Its absence may 



SELECTION OF THE SITE 19 

be made up for by increased efficiency in heating and 
ventilating. 

Since the best location for a school-building is 
more or less dependent upon the size and type of the 
building, it follows that, if the choosers of the site 
and the architect work together, better results will be 
secured than if each works separately. 

Too Small a Site.— Very often land is purchased 
before it is needed in anticipation of a rise in value 
and is built upon later. Too great economy in the size 
of the lot will then result in a dilemma if the increase 
in the population of a section surpasses meagre ex- 
pectations on the part of the buyers. 

If a given site is not large enough to remove all 
danger of obstructions to the light and sun, only two 
courses are open unless the authorities are willing to 
jeopardize for years to come the eyes of children 
occupying the seats not sufficiently lighted. The 
first course is to increase the size of the site. That 
being impossible, the building should be reduced 
in size and an additional site secured elsewhere, or, 
as it is the lowest floor only which is usually affected, 
the structure may sometimes be carried up a story 
higher and a smaller number of rooms placed on the 
lower floor. A small site which has been gradually 
enclosed by tall buildings must be made to meet these 
special conditions by increased height and the most 
favorable use of what facilities it has for light. 
Otherwise it should be abandoned. 



20 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

The Architect's Part 
A. In Constructing a New Building. 

General Sanitary Requirements. — The trials of the 
modern school architect are not few. He must venti- 
late cellar, halls, school-rooms, dressing-rooms, stair- 
ways, and even the walls of his building. Each child 
must have thirty cubic feet of air each minute. 
There must be no " dead " or un ventilated spots, no 
draughts, and no interference between ingoing and 
outgoing currents. If possible, to avoid odors, the 
closets must be removed from the building and fur- 
nished with the best sanitary appliances. Moisture 
must be kept out of the walls by isolating layers. 
Halls must be large, and stairways made with strong 
hand-rails, and steps not over eight inches high, seven 
being preferable. Noises are to be shut out by 
padded floors, ceilings, etc. Stoves and steam radia- 
tors are to be excluded and air heated by furnace or 
steam pipes and driven by fans must be furnished to 
the rooms, though radiation from steam-pipes under 
windows may be used as an aid to a fan system. Again, 
the floors must be of hard wood free from splinters 
and cracks, while the cellar should be cemented. The 
whole must be planned with a view to the requisite 
number of seats and desks, and these should be sepa- 
rate and adjustable. In the city or town the buildings 
must be constructed as nearly fireproof as possible, 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 21 

while in the country the whole school-house must be 
under-cellared. 

The Aim of the Lighting. — As has been seen, all of 
the above requirements are entirely aside from any 
thought of the conditions affecting the lighting of 
the school-building, which is the special topic to be 
considered in this discussion. The architect's aim in 
this particular is simply to furnish sufficient and un- 
interrupted light to each desk even on dark days. The 
system by which he secures this end depends upon 
the number of pupils to be accommodated and the 
extent of the site, for these two factors determine the 
type of building to be erected. The bearing of the 
former is evident; that of the latter has been hinted 
at in so far as it affected the choice of the site, but 
deserves further consideration as applied to the work 
of the architect. 

The Lighting as Affected by the Type of the Build- 
ing. — For the same number of children a small site 
necessitates a higher building than a more generous 
site would require. If it is long and narrow the 
building would differ very much from one that could 
be erected on a square piece of ground. The most 
common form of building is the square or oblong, 
which draws its light from all sides and, as a rule, 
it is the most economical, particularly for from four- 
to twelve-room buildings. This type may be modified 
so as to receive light only from two opposite sides, 
though in case of a very long and narrow building 



22 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 



FIG,8 



Street 



F1G.9 



Street 



Figs. 8 and 9. — Two forms of half quadrangle buildings. Dotted 
lines show blind walls. Fig. 8 is adapted from fifty-room 
building taking an entire block. Fig. 9 is adapted from a fif- 
teen-room building. 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 



23 




SECOND STORY PLAN. 



Fig. 11. — Spaces in exterior walls between heavy black lines rep- 
resent windows. Sliding partitions, represented by converging 
lines, have glass in upper sections. Notice that light enters 
rooms as a unit. 



24 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

sufficient light may be obtained even from one side. 
Aside from these the " L " ^ or " H " ^ shaped, the 
half-quadrangle,'^ or even the full-quadrangled build- 
ing represent the ordinary and approved shapes of 
which all others are modifications or combinations. 
The square * and oblong ^ form is best adapted to 
smaller buildings, while the other shapes will accom- 
modate from eight to twenty rooms on each floor. 

From what has already been shown the sides of 
these buildings from which light is drawn must be at 
a distance from an opposing building, erected or 
likely to be erected, equal to twice the height of the 
obstruction, though a rigid adherence to this prin- 
ciple is less necessary on the south side owing to the 
greater brightness of the sky in that quarter, A large 
structure may be suited to varying conditions and be 
arranged so as to have blind walls on almost any side 
without interfering seriously with the lighting, pro- 
vided the light is not shut ofif/from more than two 
sides. Where light is cut off from one or more sides of 
a small site for a building containing from four to 
twelve rooms, less adaptation is possible and the 
architect must look well to his distances. If in a ten- 
room school-house costing $30,000 two rooms are use- 
less because of lack of light, there is a loss of twenty 
per cent, in the efficiency of the building, or in money 
$6,000. The fact that the rooms may be used not- 

1 See Fig. G. ■ See Figs. 7, 10, 11, and 12. ' See Figs. 8, 9, 13, 
U, and 15. * See Fig. 16. ^ See Fig. 17. 



TIIE ARCHITECT'S PART 25 

withstanding does not wipe out this loss. It is paid 
for bj' scores of injured eyes. Again, it would be a 
waste of good space to put an " H "-shaped build- 
ing on a corner lot of small size, or to put a large 
square or oblong building in the middle of a crowded 
block. The frontage necessary to make a square 
building conform to the requirements for light would 
be great compared M'ith that of an " H "-shaped 
building with two blank walls, as shown in Figs. 4 
and 7. 

Put the Light in the Rooms Used. — Having deter- 
mined the general character of the building, its size, 
exact site, number of floors, staircases, etc., the prob- 
lems of arrangement and size of rooms are to be 
considered with a view to the best provision of light. 
Put the light in the rooms used for the school-work, 
is the mandate of experience and common-sense, and 
needs no elaboration as a principle. It involves, how- 
ever, several considerations not always regarded. 
For example, assembly-rooms used less than a tenth 
of the school time are not infrequently on the south 
side in most favorable positions for light. Dressing- 
rooms monopolize windows which are needed for light 
in the class-rooms, while on the side of the building 
from which the best light is secured are not infre- 
quently found halls or staircases. This means that 
good light is going to waste. 

At other times a room which has been planned for a 
purpose requiring good light might better have been 



26 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 




THE ARCHITECT'S PART 



27 



arranged for another purpose. In one of my schools, 
for example, just across the hall from a room, the light 
of which is obstructed by a house built earlier than the 
school, is a double room used as a kindergarten. If the 
dark room had been opened into the next room so as 
to make a double room, it would have been almost as 



JL JlL 



r 

L 



1 



I h 



Fig. 15. — Detail of second story plan of building with sixteen 
rooms and assembly room on lot 150 feet square, enclosed on 
three sides. Warren R. Briggs, architect. 

light as any and would have made a good kinder- 
garten-room, while the room planned for the kinder- 
garten, having no obstruction to the light, could have 
been divided up into two excellent class-rooms. 

Amount of Window Space. ^ — It used to be consid- 
ered sufficient to have about a tenth or even a twelfth 
as much window space as floor space. But continued 
experience with bad light, the practical ingenuity of 

' For an excellent resume of this topic see Dr. Burnham in the 
Pedagogical Seminarj^, vol. ii., p. 33, 



28 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 



American architects, and, above all, the careful inves- 
tigations of Dr Cohn, have led to a general accceptanee 
of his standard as the very minimum. According to 




Fig. 16. — Sketch of building lighted from all sides and having four 
rooms on each floor. L. W. Robinson, architect. 

his recommendation, the relation of window space to 
floor space should be at least one to six. When this 
amount of window space was provided he found the 
minimum of defective eyesight. Since then school 
architecture has demonstrated the practicality of in- 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 



29 



creasing the window surface up to the ratio of one to 
four, or in corner rooms even one to three. By the use 
of iron or wooden beams and mullions, glass brick, 
ghiss floors, etc., a building for mercantile, manufac- 
turing, or school purposes can be made almost entirely 
of glass. ( See below. ) The key to the problem of light- 
ing lies in adhering strictly to the demand for window 




^^ T> J7 ~^^ 



Fig. 17. — Lighted from two sides only. Warren R. Briggs, archi- 
tect. 



space of at least a sixth of the floor space, and more, 
if the room is unusually deep, so that the farthest 
seats are quite remote from the windows. The adop- 
tion of the one to six ratio is almost entirely the 
result of actual experiments in the school-room, which 
showed, where these conditions were not fulfilled, the 
children in the farthest seats could not read type at 
the normal distance, and on dark days many others 
were handicapped.^ Since Dr. Colin 's investigations 
many others have been made with similar conclusions, 

' If architects and school-committee men could test the light as 
indicated in Appendix II. on the darkest days it certainly would be 
conducive to better results thereafter. 



30 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

some investigators even advocating the relation of win- 
dow-glass to floor surface, one to four, as the minimum. 
In Switzerland one to four is the rule and one to five 
the minimum as prescribed by the authorities. This 
ratio is practical. For, while the light is easily mod- 
erated, the task of increasing it is difficult. It has been 
said that a school-room cannot have too much light. 
This is in general true except when some of the light 
comes from the wrong direction or reflections from 
bright surfaces are thrown into the eyes of the chil- 
dren or teachers. But, if there is too much light, the 
error can always be corrected easily.^ If a teacher or 
pupil has continually to face a bright light, impaired 
vision is likely to ensue, but there seems to be no 
reason why with shades, awnings, or proper screening 

' Burrage quotes Forster's statement, made long ago, that "the 
curtains are not yet invented that will keep back the direct rays of 
the sun, and at the same time let the diffuse light of the clear sky 
pass through." This is either erroneous or absolutely misleading. 
I have made several tests at various times in rooms lighted unilat- 
erally with less than a sixth as much glass area as floor surface and 
have found the light passable even with all the shades drawn to cover 
the windows wholly, it being satisfactory in one case where the ra- 
tio was almost one square foot of window to eight square feet of 
floor surface (but not without a slight glare), and in another where 
the depth of the room was 27^ feet against 25i on the window side. 
In all these cases the light was such that with curtains drawn to the 
limit one could read without any appreciable loss in accuracy or 
speed the columns of figures used in connection with Cohn's light- 
tester in spite of the screen which shuts off four-fifths of the light. 
The curtains gave no glare except in the case mentioned above, and 
no poorer conditions for the trial could be found without absolving 
the shades from any responsibility for their inability to diffuse light 
enough for the rooni. 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 31 

of some kind, any amount of light could not be tem- 
pered to the desired degree. 

From one-fourth to one-sixth is therefore the de- 
sired amount of window space as compared with floor 
space; and sashes, curtains, and other obstructions to 
light are not to be included in that amount. 

Dimensions of the Rooms. — The floor space for forty 
pupils is usually, or should be, about seven hundred 
and fifty square feet, and might advantageously be 
considerably increased. A standard room for forty 
pupils would therefore be about 30 X 25 X 13% feet. 
Such a room would give the minimum air space per 
pupil, 250 cubic feet, and the air should be changed 
seven and one-fifth times in the hour to allow each 
child thirty cubic feet of air per minute. To furnish 
these same conditions to fifty children the room 
should be about 32 X 28 X 14 feet. 

No court or commission has fixed the dimensions of 
a standard room. They are determined, however, 
within narrow limits by the two formulae (1) that the 
product of the length, width, and height of the room 
multiplied by the number of times the air is changed 
each hour must be equal to or greater than 1,800 mul- 
tiplied by the number of pupils planned for the room, 
in which 1,800 represents the number of cubic feet of 
air needed each hour by each pupil, and (2) the prod- 
uct of the dimensions of the room must be equal to 
or greater than 250 times the number of pupils 
planned for the room, in which 250 represents the 



32 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

minimum air space that can be safely allotted each 
pupil, applying these formulaB to the above figures, in 
the room for forty pupils the first would read : 30 X 
25 X 13^ X 7| must equal or exceed 1,800X40; 
and the second : 30 X 25 X 13| must equal or exceed 
250 X 40. For fifty pupils the first formula would 
read: 32 X 28 X 14 X 7| must equal or exceed 1,800 
X 50 ; and the second : 32 X 28 X 14 must equal or 
exceed 250 X 50. 

So-called standard rooms have failed to meet 
one or both of these requirements so often that any 
material departures from these figures should be tested 
as to their conformity to both of these formulae. 
Moreover, if the rooms are made higher than the 
dimensions given above, the stairs become burden- 
some, while a more rapid change of the air is likely 
to produce draughts and it is not wise to count on 
the aid of ' ' natural ' ' ventilation. If the floor space 
is much increased in its length there is danger of get- 
ting beyond the effective carrying power of the teach- 
er 's voice. If the width is increased, care must be 
taken that desks are not placed where the light of the 
sky cannot reach them directly. (See Appendix I.) 
Radical departures from the above proportions can- 
. not, therefore, be safely made. The limitations of the 
teacher's voice and his inability to handle effectively 
large numbers must make fifty the very limit for 
ordinary school-rooms. 

Location of the Light. — Knowing the amount of 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 33 

window space necessary as compared with the floor 
space and tlie dimensions of the rooms, our next prob- 
lem concerns the location of the light. 

In this question two considerations are involved. 
The full light must shine on the children's work, and 
it must not be faced by pupil or teacher. These con- 
ditions are best fulfilled by an adequate lighting from 
.the left or above, as is set forth in the following pages, 
and in all cases it must be borne in mind that the light 
from the highest portion of a window is by far the 
most valuable. That which comes through the lowest 
portions goes to the floor. 

The old contest between the advocates of unilateral 
and bilateral lighting has been won by the unilateral- 
ists, but only so long as they provide adequate light 
and that from the left. 

Reasons for Unilateral Lighting from Left. — The 
reasons for this position of the light are chiefly free- 
dom from shadows. Light from the rear casts 
shadows from the pupil's body and head upon his 
book or paper. Light from the right is obstructed by 
the pupil's hand in using pen or pencil. These are 
very serious objections to any dependence upon light 
from either the rear or the right. 

Everybody agrees that there should be no light 
in front of the pupils for them to face, as the strain 
of facing it is very likely to show itself in weak eyes, 
particularly when the children are nervously tired or 
under special strains. For reading, this method 



34 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOLROOMS 

lights the binding of the book instead of lighting the 
page, and is otherwise objectionable. 

The light from the left is therefore the only un- 
objectionable form of unilateral lighting. It should 
also be from the long side rather than the short, 
though this is not essential, provided the requisite 
amount of light is secured. However, if the room is 
long and deep, the required amount of light could 
hardly be supplied from the shorter side, as in such 
cases there should be at least one-fourth as much 
window-glass as floor surface to reach the farthest 
seats. 

Bilateral Lighting. — Although we have a general 
agreement as to the desirability of adequate uni- 
lateral lighting from the left, the question as to 
whether a room may be lighted from more than one 
side is still in dispute. The objection to the pupil's 
facing the light is valid, even if this lighting is sup- 
plemented from another direction. Therefore any 
combination by which the children face the light must 
be avoided. The three combinations left, then, are 
right and rear light, left and right, and left and rear. 
It is evident that the first of these is still open to all 
the objections of light from the right. The hand 
shades the writing or pencil-work on the right, while 
the head and body cut off the light from the rear ; so 
that the possible combinations are reduced to two. 
The school-rooms where right and rear lighting could 
not be changed either to left and rear or to left alone 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 35 

(by blocking up certain windows in case of long, nar- 
row rooms) are very rare. 

Of the two remaining possible combinations that with 
windows at the left and right is much to be preferred. 
This gives abundant light for reading, and if the light 
at the right is shaded or thrown to the ceiling there 
will be no shadow of any account on the writing, as 
the chief source of illumination is then on the left. 
We see this in the one-room country school, where, if 
the light is reduced on the right side, a good lighting 
is secured, unless the piers between the windows cast 
shadows interfering with some of the children, as 
they usually do to some extent. This right and left 
lighting is particularly valuable where two rooms on 
opposite sides of a building are scantily lighted. By 
putting in glass in the upper part of the partition 
walls defects may be greatly reduced or even over- 
come. Except in the use of glass partitions, this right 
and left form of lighting has its chief application in 
rural schools. 

Light from the left and rear is generally trying 
for the teacher, who has hitherto received very slight 
consideration, as is shown by the fact that perhaps 
ninety per cent, of the rooms in all but the very largest 
cities are so lighted. Cases of irritation of the retina 
as a result must arise, though a great many teachers 
are strong enough physically to throw off any perma- 
nent effects. From the pupil's standpoint alone the 
left and rear lighting is usually better than that from 



36 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

right and left; for, as a matter of fact, the children 
farther away from the windows on their left get from 
that direction not only the light from windows on 
that side, but even the light from most of the rear 
windows comes to them from their left. If there are 
three windows on the pupils' left and four back of 
them, the two or three ranges of seats farthest from 
the windows on the left will get light in general from 
that direction, not only from the three windows on 
that side, but from two or three out of the four on 
the rear side. (See Fig. 18.) The light coming from 
the remaining rear window will therefore not cast any 
appreciable shadow in view of the illumination from 
the other four windows. The other ranges of seats 
being nearer the left windows will get more light from 
that side, increasing proportionately as the square of 
the distance diminishes. This rear light is still better 
if it comes from a high point, the upper sash being the 
part of the window most useful, and particularly in 
supplementing left light. What shadows may be cast 
then are short and less likely to interfere. 

Having light on two sides is also a decided ad- 
vantage when the sun shines into a room. The shades 
should be drawn to keep the sun off the desks and 
books, but when this is done the light is greatly re- 
duced, especially where the ordinary, rather opaque 
school-curtains are in use, however inexcusably. If 
at such times light can be added from the rear, the 
difficulty is removed in great measure, if not entirely. 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 



37 



The shades may be kept drawn in the rear of the room 
except where the light is needed, and there is then 
the possibility of having sufficient light even on the 
darkest days. 

It should also be borne in mind in this connection 
that, as children usually hold their books, the left 



_.!Z 


=] 








rf] □ 


\i\ 


□ n 


n 


n 


ism ^ 


m 


□ n 


□ 


n 


mn J 


m 


□ a 


□ 


□ 


1 


1 


,^ 




"■■□ 
-d 


^^ 








□ 


/ 








,□ 



Rear 

Fig. 18. — Diagram to show that left and rear lighting is practically 
lighting from the left for seats farthest from the windows. 



cover shades the left page in a room lighted from 
that side alone. If, however, it is lighted also from 
the top of the rear, the children get a very good light 
coming in a line almost perpendicular to their books; 
and they will learn to avoid the shadows cast by their 
heads under these circumstances. The writing, how- 
ever, could be seriously shadowed by this style of 
lighting. 

Aside from these advantages it is usually either 
necessary or desirable from an architectural stand- 



38 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOLROOMS 

point to have the light from two sides in all corner 
rooms, and these constitute a goodly proportion in 
almost any except the large buildings where the 
greater adaptation due to the increased size makes a 
larger space of " blind " wall possible. Supposing, 
however, the lighting of these corner rooms on left 
and rear lacked practical advantages for dark days, 
sunny rooms, or obstructed light, the architectural 
difficulties might be overcome, as they frequently are, 
but, on the whole, few architects seem willing to stake 
their reputations, considering all the possibilities, on 
the light that can be gained from one side of a room, 
if two sides are available. (See Figs. 16 and 19.) It 
must be remembered, however, that the teacher is 
likely to suffer under this arrangement. In many 
cases, particularly where there are trees or buildings 
opposite the rear windows, this light does not give the 
teacher any trouble. If, as he looks from his desk 
toward the windoM^, very little or no sky is visible, this 
light need not be at all harmful, provided proper pre- 
cautions are taken. 

Soft-coal Smoke and Left and Rear Lighting. — There 
are some who argue that unilateral lighting cannot 
afford light enough to a school in a soft-coal burning 
centre on dark days when the smoke adds its pall to 
the lead of the sky. I know of no investigations 
which have attempted to measure the effect of smoke 
on an otherwise standard well-lighted building, and 
the question cannot be settled otherwise than by ex- 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 39 

periments, preferably with a good photometer, or 
Cohn's light-tester, on the less favorable clays of the 
j^ear, and in each locality separately. (See Appendix 
II.) 

That there must be a loss is evident, and that it 
must be particularly felt on the dark days when light 
is most needed is also evident. Perhaps a ratio of 
one to four in window to floor surface would be suffi- 
cient to overcome it in some places, or rooms might be 
made longer and narrower. In Europe, where such 
matters have received the attention of investigators, 
there is no trouble from smoke-laden atmosphere, al- 
though the more northern latitude renders the sky 
light less bright. 

This question, however unsettled it may be in its 
mathematics, leads to a very practical one immedi- 
ately upon its application to the left and rear light- 
ing. Soft-coal smoke shuts out much of the glaring 
brightness of the sky even on clear days. It therefore 
reduces to an almost negligible factor the chief ob- 
jection to the left and rear lighting in places where 
the soft-coal smoke is a hindrance to good lighting. 
The teacher does not face a bright light and the 
children get the benefit of this additional window 
surface. Consequently, left and rear lighting, al- 
though second ordinarily to the unilateral lighting 
from the left side, may be preferred to it where the 
smoke is so dense as to cut off much light. 

It might be added that provision should be made 



40 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

SO that windows could be washed more readily where 
soft coal is burned, as the soot adheres to the glass. 
The rule there, as anywhere, is simply to keep the 
windows clean at all times, but where that is made 
easy by revolving sashes or other devices better results 
are likely to be attained. 

Light from Above. — No serious fault could be found 
with light from above, but it is only available in one- 
story buildings, or in the top floor of larger ones 
where there is no difficulty in providing light, if the 
other floors are adequately supplied. This method 
makes a warm room in summer, is expensive, and pro- 
duces such a prison-cell effect as to make it unde- 
sirable, unless it be for art-rooms. The warmth will 
not be so troublesome a feature if the roof slopes 
toward the north, so that the sun has little chance to 
enter. It is a possible method for rural schools, but 
too expensive and lacking in practical advantages to 
give it any possibility of general usefulness. Even in 
rural schools some windows should break the dreari- 
ness and cell-like character the room would otherwise 
have. A 

Conclusion on the Direction of Light. — In summariz- 
ing the direction of the liglit, it should be said that 
adequate unilateral lighting from the pupil's left and 
the long side of the room is the best; that lighting 
from right and left or left and rear may be advisable 
under some circumstances. Of these last the advan- 
tages of theory are with the right and left illumination, 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 41 

but practicality, particularly in cities where soft coal 
is generally used and in corner rooms, demands not 
infrequently the left and rear lighting, though the evil 
of this method for the teacher should limit its use to 
cases either where its effects are nullified by smoke- 
laden atmosphere, obstructions, and so forth, or where 
nothing else will do and it can be justified by its ad- 
vantages for the pupils. Overhead illumination would 
seem to be thoroughly practical as an aid, but not as 
a substitute for window-lighting. It is seldom used, 
however, except in drawing or art rooms. 

Location of Windows. — The best light for a school- 
room comes from the upper part of the windows. On 
that account the windows should extend as far toward 
the ceiling as possible. In old buildings it is not un- 
usual to find two or three feet of side-wall above the 
window, but modern architecture has reduced this to 
about six inches. On the other hand, a very large 
percentage of the light coming through the window at 
or near the level of the pupils' heads goes directly to 
the floor and consequently is useless or worse than 
useless, as no light i& gained and the children's at- 
tention is drawn from their work by the distractions 
furnished outside. Moreover,, they may get reflec- 
tions from bright objects which intrude themselves 
upon the children, if their line of vision can reach 
the ground. Accordingly, windows should be from 
three to three and one-half feet from the floor and ex- 
tend to within six inches of the ceiling. Four feet 



42 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

from the floor seems unnecessarily high for the bot- 
tom of the window, except where the conditions are 
extraordinary. 

Application to Standard Room. — Taking the stand- 
ard minimum room for forty pupils mentioned above, 
30 X 25 X 13i/2> it will still be seen that it is a com- 




FiG. 20. — Sketch of outside wall of school-rooms, showing possible 
window space, excejjt for muUions and sashes. 

paratively easy matter to furnish from one side only 
the light called for by the relation even of one square 
foot of window for four square feet of floor space. 
Subtracting from the height of the room (131/^ feet) 
the distance from the floor to the bottom of the win- 
dow (31/2 feet) plus the distance lost between the top 
of the window and the ceiling (I/2 a foot), we have 
at least 9 feet available perpendicularly for the win- 
dow. Multiplying by the long side (30 feet) we find 
270 square feet suitable for window space.^ Deduct- 

' Compare Fig. 20, where three feet has been taken from each 
end of the room for wall space. 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 43 

ing one-third or one-half of this for the amount to be 
occupied by piers, walls, window sashes and frames 
and we have still approximately from one-fourth to 
a little less than one-fifth as much window as tioor 
space. This is a liberal provision for piers, etc., as 
will be seen by visiting any well and unilaterally 
lighted school-room and comparing the amount of 
space above the bottom of windows occupied by piers, 
walls, etc., with the space taken by the glass. Much 
better than that can be done, and is done, by the 
American architect of to-day. 

There is one danger to be avoided here, however. 
Robson quotes Hood to the effect that one square foot 
of glass Avill cool 1.279 cubic feet of air as many degrees 
per minute as the internal air exceeds the external 
air in temperature. Whether or not this be absolute- 
ly true, it is evident that an area of window-glass, 
for example, 180 square feet, has a temperature 
equivalent in zero weather to a side-wall of which a 
surface of 180 square feet was made of ice. For this 
reason seats should never be placed close to the win- 
dows unless they are double windows and the heating 
and ventilation secures a fairly even distribution of 
hot and cold air. In northern climates the windows 
should be double, though some of the outside windows 
should hang from hinges so that they can easily be 
swung open to flush out the air where no adequate 
scheme for forced ventilation is in operation. 

It follows also from the fact that the light from the 



44 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

top is most valuable that there should be no arching 
or rounded corners to cut that light off. The brick- 
work may be decorated or sunk in above the windows 
to complete an arch and the group of windows may be 
crowned by a large blind but decorated arch above 
them, but on the principle that a room cannot have 
too much light it must not intercept light which could 
otherwise go to the window. This interdiction of the 
arch applies particularly to the lower-floor windows. 
Only when it is certain that the architect has more 
than satisfied the demands of the site, both existing 
when the building is planned and possible when the 
surrounding property is built upon, is any arching of 
the windows on upper floors permissible. 

Width and Structure of Window. — Having ascer- 
tained the proper height from the floor of the top and 
bottom of the window, a word may not be amiss re- 
garding the width. The windows should be as wide 
as is compatible with the strength of the building. It 
is advisable to have the light enter the room as a 
unit. (See Figs. 10 and 19.) Then there will be no 
distinguishable cross-lights, no distinctly outlined 
shadows ; and one intensity of the light will shade into 
another without any visible lines. To secure this unity 
of the lighting the windows should be close together, 
and therefore the piers or mullions between the win- 
dows must be small, casting no noticeable shadows a 
few feet away. Modern architecture has revolution- 
ized the whole problem of window construction. The 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 



45 



use of iron- or steel-framed buildings, and in other 
structures of iron mullions has made it possible to 
make the glass surface approach 100 per cent of the 
available surface. By beveling the window-frames, 
and especially the lintels and the sides of the mullions 
and piers — or, in general, the parts enclosing the win- 
dow — more light is secured where it is needed, as will 





Window 



Fig. 21. — Diagram showing light saved by beveled piers and mul- 
lions. (Horizontal section.) 



be seen from the following figure. By beveling off AB 
to AC, in Fig. 21, the architect saves all rays of light 
from BC, forming a goodly percentage of all the light 
received from that window. This is less necessary 
where there are no piers of any size. 

Piers have been reduced from six feet to as many 
inches to the great advantage of the lighting. Briggs 
states that by using iron mullions with window-boxes 
six windows can be placed in the same space as five 
with the ordinary sixteen-inch brick piers at practi- 
cally the same expense. (See Fig. 22 and " Briggs 's 
Modern American School Buildings," page 130.) 
They contribute greatly to the unity of the lighting. 
In New York City wooden mullions (see Fig. 19) are 



46 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 



used almost entirely, either with window-boxes or 
better with spring sash-balances. A series of win- 
dows separated by iron mullions with window-boxes 
would cost from $3 to $5 a window (in round 
numbers) more than wooden mullions with spring 
sash-balances. The spring in the latter does away 
with the weights and pulleys, and therefore with win- 





FiG. 22. — Mullions, after patterns by Briggs. 



dow-boxes; but, on the other hand, they may more 
easily get out of order and are not so easily repaired 
as weights and pulleys. 

A revolving sash (see Fig. 23) may be used where 
screens are not needed. Though of little or no ad- 
vantage for the lighting, they leave no excuse for dirty 
windows, as they can be cleaned from the inside, and 
there is no danger of falling or inconvenience from 
the cold. 

Robson says that in the glazing clear glass should 
be used. '' Rays of light should not be distorted and 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 



47 



rendered harmful by being made to pass through 
ground-glass, rough-plate, or any other of the numer- 
ous devices of a similar kind." His idea is that it 




Fig. 23 a. — The revolving sash. (Use.) 



" imprisons vision " and that our eyes need the long 
distances for recuperation, just as it has been claimed 
by Cohn and others on scanty evidence that the rea- 
son for greater frequency of myopia in cities than 
in the country is the more frequent opportunity in 
the country to rest the eyes in the more natural far 
vision. For this reason and because of irregular and 



48 THE LIGHTING OP SCHOOLROOMS 

dazzling streaks of light as well as the idea of confine- 
ment suggested by the inability to see beyond the 




Fig. 23 b. — The revolving sash. (Detail.) 

immediate environment, our decision must be in favor 
of clear glass. 

Columns, Pillars, etc. — With the broad piers has 
also gone the day of columns, pillars, etc., inside the 
ordinary school-room, though they are still much in 
evidence in old buildings. Wherever they are to be 
found their influence on the lighting must be studied, 
if harmful shadows are to be avoided. 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 49 

The Ceiling and Side-walls. — The integral parts of 
the building just considered are of fundamental im- 
portance in their relation to adequate lighting, A 
building may, however, be perfectly constructed but 
very imperfectly furnished, and still less admirably 
managed. 

The plastering of a building should diffuse the 
light. It should therefore be tinted some very light 
color, almost white. A pure white has been objected 
to on the ground that, like facing a bright light, it 
irritates the retina. This might be true if its pris- 
tine freshness lasted for any length of time; but, as 
a matter of fact, this vivid white is soon deadened by 
accumulated dust to a soft color while still retaining 
considerable diffusive power. It is also objectionable 
on £esthetie grounds, however. Where no especial 
dependence upon the diffusion from the ceiling is 
necessary, very light tints of blue, green, or brown 
are good. The side-walls, except in rare instances, 
should be tinted with one of these colors, since the 
children must face them. Bailey advises, among other 
good suggestions, the selection of a tint that harmon- 
izes with the finish of the woodwork. 

So much of the wall space is taken by blackboards 
— at least a third of the wall surface which is higher 
than the pupils' heads — that not only is it important 
to make the best use of this remaining space, but fre- 
quently it is desirable to cover at least a part of the 
blackboard space with some curtains to reflect the 



50 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

light. The purpose of these is illustrated by the 
screens used by photographers to light up this side 
or that of their victim. 

The Shades. — Again, and particularly where a room 
lighted on one side is exposed to the sunlight, heavy 
and dark opaque shades will utterly ruin the whole 
system of lighting. The sun shines in and must be 
screened off. But when this is done the children are 
left in semi-darkness. On the other hand, though a 
light shirting, ecru or light cream-colored twilling 
are recommended by some as useful in shutting out 
the sun, and as not dark enough to shut off the light, 
I have found that even the bisque (a light sage) 
makes a very satisfactory color, not light enough to 
annoy or dark enough to exclude the light. This 
and lighter colors of the Hand-made Tint and the 
Bancroft Sun-fast Hollands meet all the requirements 
of Cohn's light-tester.^ (See Appendix II.) 

If the shades are hung at the top of the windows, 
the roller and the few inches of shade which will al- 
most inevitably hang down from it cut off about four 
square feet of the very best light coming into the 
room. This may be obviated by the now common 
device of fastening a pair of rollers, each with shades, 
at the centre of the window, and pulling one up and 
one down to screen the whole window. (See Fig. 24.) 

' " Bisque " was the color of the shades in most of tlie rooms 
tested as noted on page 80. Tlie Hand-made Tint seemed to be 
preferable to the Bancroft Sun-fast Holland. 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 51 

The shades should either be wide enough to more than 
cover the window in order to prevent the sun from 
shining between the curtain and the side of the win- 
dow upon the work of some child; or the rollers may 
be set in with perhaps equally good effect and be 
neater in appearance. An abundance of curtain cord 
should be provided for regulating the curtain that 
covers the upper part of the window. 

Venetian and Inside Blinds. — Much better results 
may be obtained by use of the Venetian blinds than 
with any other screen for the sun, and demand their 
use wherever there is difficulty. Their expensiveness, 
together with a tendency to collect dust and get out of 
order, will preclude the general use they might other- 
wise have. I know of no successful inside blind 
adapted to school uses. 

Unforeseen Obstructions. — A school has perhaps been 
constructed without fire-escapes. Later they are put 
on and as a result a large fraction of the light is cut 
off from some room otherwise moderately well light- 
ed. Trees and ivy may so gradually encroach upon 
the light as to escape notice. 

The Furnishing of Rooms. — Through some short- 
sightedness in furnishing a room with its seats and 
desks, light intended to come from one side is some- 
times made to come from some other. For ex- 
ample, in a room lighted on two adjacent sides the 
desks may be put in so as to make the lighting from 
the right and rear instead of from the left and rear, 



52 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 




Fia. 24 a. — Double curtain ahadea. (Rolled up.) 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 



53 




Fig. 24 b. — Double curtain shades. (Partly drawn.) 



54 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

as was originally intended. The desks may be too 
high or too low for the pupils, and so the work be 
brought too near or too far from the eye, and the 
advantages of having a good building may be again 
counterbalanced by this mistake in furnishing. 

With very few exceptions, of which New York City 
is the most notable, desks are not furnished Ameri- 
can children which give a place for the book while 
the child reads or studies, it being considered suffi- 
cient to furnish a proper writing surface. Much 
might be said on this point. It cannot be denied that 
a better position is secured for the book where such 
provision is made for the child who is reading or 
studying. On the other hand, the furniture becomes 
very complicated and the habit of taking an easy 
natural position with the book is not so readily formed, 
which, after all, is most to be desired. 

Artificial Distribution of the Light. — Modern science 
has not only found a way to build a well-lighted 
school-room, but also seeks to control at will the dis- 
tribution of the light furnished a room. The use of 
corrugated or ribbed glass has been common for some 
time as a distributer of light. 

(a) The Prism. — Now the principle of the prism 
has been worked out so that by mathematics the whole 
question of distributing the light can be decided at 
least within the limits of the possibilities of the 
prism. The value of ribbed or corrugated glass is 
a little doubtful owing to its bright lines and the 




Inside. Outside. 




Fig. 2") — Side iiiid front views of four incli sections of prism glass. 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 55 

attention called to them by their gleaming, though 
there is every reason to believe that light is diffused 
to a greater degree and that there is a more equal 
distribution of the light than occurs when the light 
is ' dropped to the floor through plain glassi. The 
prism glass is, however, more exact and the light can 
be placed just where it is needed, though not without 
cutting oft' some rays that would go to desks near 
the windows, (See Figs. 25 and 26.) This is not a 
serious matter, however, inasmuch as the light in- 
creases inversely as the square of the distance, much 
to the advantage of seats near windows. ' The prism 
glass is expensive, and it would frequently pay better 
to remodel than to use it. As dirt may easily accumu- 
late upon the ridges, prism glass needs frequent 
washing. ^ 

(b) Reflectors. — Reflectors have also been used 
very advantageously in German schools, cutting off 
the sun or sky light and throwing it onto the ceiling. 
They are described as follows, and are illustrated in 
the+accompanying cut. (See Fig. 27.) " It is com- 
posed of a somewhat wavy plate of glass coated with 
silver and attached to the windows at an angle of 
about 45°. The corrugation increases the surface of 
reflection and secures a better distribution of the light. 
The layer of silver, which increases the intensity of re- 
flection, is given a coat of water-proof varnish to pro- 
tect it from the weather." 

(c) Glass Brick. — In Germany also glass bricks 



56 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

have been used with good results, (See Fig. 28.) It 
would hardly seem necessary when so large a propor- 
tion of wall space can be given to window space 
by our best architectural skill, but conditions can very 
readily be imagined that would be materially bettered 
by the use of such a device. They are shaped as 





Fig. 27. — Hennig's daylight re- Fig. 28. — Glass brick, a block 
flector. made for use in heavy walls. 

shown in the illustration, and are described by Eulen- 
berg and Bach as .06 of a metre at the top, .14 of a 
metre wide at the middle, and having a total length 
or height of .20 metre. It would take from forty-five 
to sixty bricks, according to the form, to cover a square 
metre, and they would cost from $3 to $4. They 
are said to be very practical, to be capable of artistic 
treatment, and to produce a somewhat weird effect. 
I know of no company manufacturing them in this 
country. 




A prism glass canopy. 




Fk;. 2(1. — A room made fit for school purpo.sc-s only by use 
of prism glass. 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 57 

How to Reduce the Light. — To control the light by 
reducing it, blinds and curtains of various sorts have 
been used. If some practical combination of the re- 
flector with the Venetian curtain could be devised, it 
would seem that that would be the ideal form of 
shade; but I know of no such article, and probably 
the cheap, light, and not too opaque double curtains 
fastened at the middle of the window and pulling 
up and down, are the best practical reducer of the 
light. To cut off the sun's heat, a blind which slides 
up and down, in two or three sections, has been ad- 
vocated. Ordinary awnings seem to be about as de- 
sirable, though perhaps not so permanent. They can 
be raised and lowered to any desired angle and are 
much cheaper, but there is danger of cutting off too 
much light both with blinds and awnings. 

Artificial Illumination. — A great deal used to be 
written on artificial illumination. Modern science 
has reduced that to a word, certainly for all cities, the 
magic word, electricity. While common gas or kero- 
sene, burnt to give the light of twelve candles equal to 
120 grams per hour, consumes from four to six cubic 
feet of oxygen each hour and produces from three to 
four cubic feet of carbonic-acid gas in the same time, 
the incandescent electric lamp burns no oxygen and 
makes no carbonic-acid gas. Again, common gas and 
kerosene, under the same conditions, consume from six- 
teen to twenty-five cubic feet of air and vitiate from 
fifteen to twenty times that amount, whereas the only 



58 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

effect of the electric light upon the air is to heat it, 
and that about one-twentieth as much as the gas or 
petroleum light. This is not quite so true of the 
ordinary forms of the arc-light, but its unsteadiness 
forbids its use in the school-room. 

The light should be ranged from some centre of 
diffusion in the ceiling, or be ranged along the left 
side and centre of the ceiling, to secure immunity 
from shadows, the same general principles holding 
for this light as for the sunlight. 

Architect Snyder, Superintendent of School-build- 
ings in New York City, favors the reflection or dif- 
fusion of all artificial light from the ceiling. This 
would cut oft' all chance of getting the direct glow in 
the eyes of the children, and therefore remove all 
danger of retinal irritation. This method is expen- 
sive, however, as much more light would be needed, 
and it is to be hoped that not much work need be 
done where artificial light must be used. 

Next to the electric light, gas with the calcium 
mantles is certainly second. 

The Holophane globe, an adaptation of the princi- 
ple of the prism to globe-making, will be of assistance 
in utilizing rays which would otherwise go up to the 
ceiling and in softening the otherwise too piercing 
light of the incandescent lamp or the calcium mantle. 
Reflectors are also used for throwing back the rays 
from the ceiling. 



THE ARCHITECT'S TART 59 

The Architect's Part 
B. In Remodeling an Old Building. 

It is not tlie province of this paper merely to con- 
sider the principles involved in the lighting as ap- 
plied to a new building. In the remainder of this 
section the architect's part in the remodeling of old 
buildings will be under discussion. 

How to Discover the Cause of Defective Light. — By 
the use of the Jaeger test types ^ on a cloudy day the 
seriousness of the defect may be detected. What, then, 
is its source or kind? This will be found to consist 
in some violation of the principles laid down above. 
These violations, perhaps necessary under the im- 
posed conditions, or more likely due to the careless- 
ness and ignorance of a contract system, may be 
discovered by a judicious application of the following 
test questions : 

1. Are all such obstructions as buildings, fire- 
escapes, or trees, either guarded against or so placed 
that they will not deprive the children of the direct 
light from the sky? 

2. Is light put where it is wanted without waste? 

3. Is the ratio of window-glass to floor surface one 
to six or better? 

' Where the diamond type, No. 1, can be read by the normal eye 
at a distance of twelve inches, the light is satisfactory. See Ap- 
pendix II and page 71. 



60 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

4. Are the windows on the left side, or in such 
combinations as neither cause shadows nor force the 
children to face the light? 

5. Is the top of the window not more than six 
inches below the ceiling and without arching? Is 
the bottom of the window at least three or three and 
a half feet from the floor? 

6. Have all large piers between the windows or 
posts inside the rooms, which obstruct the light for 
certain seats, been done away with by skilful plan- 
ning? 

These questions will suffice for applying the really 
fundamental principles and for discovering the nature 
of the defects. 

There are various devices which play a less im- 
portant role in the construction of the building, 
provided the main principles have been properly re- 
garded, but are indispensable if some of these factors 
have been disregarded or overlooked. 

Devices which May Be Efficacious. — The most im- 
portant and useful of these devices will appear in- 
the following questions, which will serve both to test 
the further completeness of the work and to point 
out, if the defects are not too marked, the best 
methods of bringing up to the standard old buildings 
which have been built in opposition to fundamental 
principles of lighting. It may be said, however, that 
no device is so generally satisfactory as that of in- 
creasing the window surface. 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 61 

7. Have the lintels, mullions or piers, and frames 
been beveled ? 

8. Is the color of the walls or ceiling too dark ? 

9. Do the blackboards need curtaining to get a 
greater reflecting surface? 

10. Has the best possible arrangement of the rooms 
with due regard to economy of the light been se- 
cured ? 

11. Have the desks been arranged in accordance 
with the best possible lighting? 

12. Have, modern devices, such as prism-glass, re- 
flectors, etc., been made use of where there has been 
any especial difficulty? 

Notice also whether the curtains are so placed as 
to take the minimum of light when not in use; and 
in case of artificial illumination, see to it that enough 
lamps or burners are provided to enable pupils at 
each desk to read type ^ at the normal distance. 

Typical Deficiencies, How Removed. — Having made 
a test of our building with these points in mind, our 
next and most important question is what we are 
going to do if it falls short. This depends upon the 
principle violated or the nature and extent of this 
defect. 

(a) Obstructions. — In case of an obstruction this 

should be removed, if it is any way possible. If it 

is a question of putting the fire-escapes in some other 

place, or of cutting down trees, the difficulty is very 

' See note on page 59. 



62 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

easily remedied. If a house or building of some sort 
has been erected, the light cannot be restored with- 
out removing the building. Sometimes painting the 
building white will make a material difference, while 
every advantage should be taken of the devices for 
increasing the light in the room by using more win- 
dow surface, by securing more and brighter reflecting 
surface, and by obtaining better distribution of the 
light. Prism-glass, reflectors, etc., can certainly be 
used to help toward this end, but may not be suffi- 
cient to entirely remove the deficiency. If all fails, 
the abandonment of the seats farthest from the win- 
dows must follow. 

(b) Wasted Light. — If light is wasted on rooms 
seldom or never used, the rearrangement of the rooms 
is highly desirable and can doubtless be effected with- 
out very serious expense. This applies to buildings 
where dressing-rooms take light which should go to 
the school-room. There may be some expense in- 
volved, but it is foolish and criminal not to put a 
school in good hygienic condition, if by an outlay of 
a few hundred dollars the eyes of many children 
might be saved and their general health be greatly im- 
proved. By putting, for example, a play-room or 
kindergarten, which occupies perhaps the space of 
two ordinary school-rooms, in a light corner room 
adjoining a room which would be too dark for ordi- 
nary school uses unless it were opened into the other 
and all partitions done away with, both rooms are 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 63 

well lighted and otherwise waste space is utilized 
without loss. The displacement of opaque partitions 
in whole or in part by partitions which will at least 
allow the surplus light from one room to help that of 
its less favored neighbor will operate very favorably 
in lighting many rooms whose adequate illumination 
would otherwise be quite difficult. Similarly the use 
of glass even in a door may be all that is necessary to 
properly light two or three neighboring desks other- 
wise just lacking the required amount of light. 

(c) Too Little Window Surface. — If the defect is 
due to the fact that we have only a tenth as much 
window-glass as we have floor, it is generally very 
difficult to remedy, and the only thing that ought in 
all good reason to be done is to have the window space 
enlarged. This is in almost all cases possible, al- 
though at a considerable expense. Still it is better 
to make some outlay than to abandon all the poorly 
lighted seats, which would necessitate greater expense 
for the erection of a building to hold the children 
excluded by the poor lighting. If the ratio is almost 
one to six, it is possible that by beveling and by the 
use of reflectors, prism-glass, and the other helps to 
diffusion, that sufficient light may be secured on all 
but the darkest days, when the character of the 
school-work should be changed. 

Briggs has figured the area of frames, sash, and 
boxing of five ordinary four-by-eight windows as 
equal to twenty-two and a third square feet. There- 



64 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

fore large window-panes (say two to the average win- 
dow) do away with quite an area of frame, which has 
a darkening effect. 

It should not be forgotten in one-story school- 
houses that lighting from the roof is both possible, 
and in some instances, particularly when the side- 
walls are low, very desirable, nor in most cases is a 
large area of roof window necessary. 

It will very likely be found that the abandonment 
of the row of seats farthest from the windows is all 
that is needed; though this is dangerous unless the 
seats are actually taken out of the room. Every 
effort should be made to increase the window surface 
in all cases when it falls below the required ratio. 

Light from the Wrong Direction. — No defect can 
be much more easily overcome than the serious one 
of the light coming from the wrong side. There are 
probably in this country very few schools where the 
light does not come from the left side. Where it does 
not, the seats and desks should be taken up and put 
down again, so that the side of the room furnishing 
the light should be at the left, no matter how incon- 
venient this new arrangement may appear to be from 
the standpoint of the use of blackboards, the position 
of the doors, etc. — all these are minor points and the 
difficulty is largely imaginary. If there is a platform 
or anything of the sort in the room which stands in 
the way of re-arrangement, it should be removed. 
Froebel condemned the platform in the ordinary 



THE ARCHITECT'S PART 65 

school-room for all time. In all the forbidden com- 
binations, such as the right and rear, or those with 
front light, the rearrangement of the seats makes it 
possible to give at least favorable conditions. For 
example, left and front light, as may be readily seen, 
can be changed to left and rear. Right and front 
light can be changed to left and rear. Rear and front 
light may be changed to left and right. Right and 
rear may be changed to left and rear. It will thus 
be seen- that light from any one or two sides may, by 
changing the direction of the desk and seats, be made 
to come from the left and from one of the two per- 
missible combinations, left and right, or left and rear. 
By carrying the windows two or three feet higher 
many an old building with the top of its windows 
three or four feet from the ceiling of the room could 
very easily be brought up to the requirements of good 
lighting. Where the arching of a window or pair of 
windows cuts off valuable light, the defect is best 
remedied by remodeling the windows, if not the build- 
ing. (See Fig. 29.) The bottom of the windows is 
seldom too high from the floor, but the minimum of 
three feet for primary children is frequently reduced 
several inches with danger of distracting and even 
harmful reflections. Not less than three feet from 
the floor for the sill must be our rule, if the pupil's 
heads are to be kept below the level of the bottom of 
the window. Nor should the distance from the floor 
be so great as to cut off needed light. 



66 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 



Great spaces between windows continually shade 
certain desks, in some cases very seriously. Here, 
again, the best help is the actual cutting out of the 
pier, replacing it by window surface, and with one iron 
mullion to take the place of the former heavy pier. 



I 1 r 

I I I I 

I ' I 

I I ^ -~-v^^ ] 



Fig. 29. — Two old style windows with wide pier between them. 
Dotted lines show additional light obtained by use of mullion 
and by carrying windows as near the ceiling as possible. 



It is in such places that glass brick could also be 
utilized to bring up the lighting to a normal standard. 
It is, of course, impossible practically to remove 
pillars or posts inside the room supporting the floors 
above. Where these are used we must be very careful 
to see to it that any desks shaded by these pillars are 
abandoned. This cannot be too urgently pressed. 
The influence of these obstructions is perceptible. 



THE TEACHER'S DUTY 67 

Similar Methods in All Cases. — It is to be conceded 
that in the foregoing not every possible perversion 
of the lighting has been considered, but it is believed 
that the more usual and typical forms of inadequate 
lighting have been indicated in brief manner, to- 
gether with the violation of principle responsible for 
them and the most desirable practical means of over- 
coming the deficiency. Similar applications of the 
available devices may be made for any defect accord- 
ing to its nature and extent. 



The Teacher's Duty 

The most perfect architectural plans have not and 
will not rid the school of defective eyes without a 
more decided co-operation on the part of the teacher 
and the parent. Only a little experience in the 
school-room is necessary to show that the following 
facts are true: 

1. Many teachers allow bad positions on the part 
of the children while they write and read. The eyes 
are allowed to get too near their work. In writing 
a stooping posture cuts off light from the paper. The 
same may be true of the reading, as by the very effort 
of the children to do well they unconsciously, in strain- 
ing for a better view, draw the book up too near the 
eye. Again, they may read with the binding of the 
book lighted instead of the page, especially if, as they 



68 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

range around the teacher, some or all of them face the 
windows. 

2. Some teachers do not co-operate with the archi- 
tect in his designs for lighting the room. This is 
shown in a careless and ignorant manipulation of the 
shades (especially in the cutting off of high light), 
or in a failure to attend to the varying conditions of 
sun and cloud presenting themselves during the day. 

3. Many teachers are ignorant as to what constitutes 
a well-lighted room, and in case of defective lighting 
do not know how to determine its extent. They are 
therefore unahle to take steps toward remedying it 
either by extra care on their own part or by enlisting 
the aid of others. 

4. Most teachers do not watch not test the children 's 
eyes for cases of incipient defect, and so give them 
an opportunity to protect their eyes, while there is 
time. 

5. The care of the eyes is not taught in any prac- 
tical or helpful way. 

Each of these charges suggests a corresponding 
duty to the teacher. 

(1) The oculists tell us that fifteen inches is the 
nearest that a child can approach his work without 
danger to the eye. The observance of this principle 
must be enforced, be it ever so hard. Children should 
use their rulers to measure the distance. (See Fig. 30.) 
They should, if need be while writing, hold the end 
of the ruler between the thumb and forefinger of the 



THE TEACHER'S DUTY 69 

left hand, leaving the other fingers to hold the paper 
in place. Then as the ruler points toward their heads, 
it serves both as a reminder and as a concrete example 
of the distance to be regarded. Pictures of Mr. 
Straight and Mr. Crooked (the latter playing the role 
of the sad example) should be placed on the black- 





FiG. 31. — Mr. Straight and Mr. Crooked. 

board (see Fig. 31), and any other devices which the 
ingenuity of the teacher may suggest should be used 
to overcome this most dangerous foe to the eyesight. 
The battle must be fought at the beginning of the 
school-year, and the teacher must be unyielding. No 
excuses are to be accepted. If the children claim they 
cannot see, test their eyes, and you will soon see that 
with very few exceptions there is no such defect as to 
make it impossible to see at a distance of twelve inches 
from their work. In these, as in other cases of def ect- 
tiveness, glasses should be worn to bring the eyes up 
to the normal. Nor is the excuse of the child that he 
cannot write well to be taken. He might far better 
write wretchedly than ruin his eyesight, and there is 
no reason why he cannot both write well and at the 



70 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

same time take a proper posture. The position of the 
pen or pencil is a minor point compared with that of 
the body, neck, and head, but the last is more often 
neglected. 

The Germans have recognized this difficulty and 
have, with their customary tendency to mould rather 
than to train, invented a head or face rest which is 
fastened to the desk and supports the chin, thus keep- 
ing the head at the proper distance; while still more 
ingenious is a contrivance consisting of delicately 
balanced blinders looking like spectacles, so arranged 
that if the child bends forward toward his work be- 
yond a certain angle the blinders drop from the 
frame and he can see nothing until he has restored 
them to their former position by raising his head. 

(2) The teacher should study the best arrange- 
ment of the shades in his room for each hour of the 
day. It is seldom necessary that all the shades be 
drawn at the same time so as to exclude the sun. 
When it is cloudy the light should be given every 
opportunity to enter. Any lighting can be perverted 
by the teacher's handling of the shades. Light must 
not be taken from the rear when the architect in- 
tended to have it come from the left. But most fre- 
quent is the error of leaving the whole or a large 
part of the upper half of the windows shaded and 
the attempt to get the light from the lower and there- 
fore much the less valuable part of the window. 

The failure of teachers to adjust the desks to short- 



THE TEACHER'S DUTY 71 

waisted or even average children, where this is possi- 
ble, is only another tangible evidence of the common 
neglect of the duty to care for the eyesight. If the 
furniture cannot be fitted to the children, the latter 
must, as far as possible, be fitted to the furniture. 

(3) By the use of Jaeger's test-types, obtainable 
of any. optician at a nominal price, anyone can de- 
termine whether the light at a given desk is sufficient 
or not. If the diamond type, No. 1, can be read by a 
normal eye with facility at a distance of twelve inches, 
the light is satisfactory. A better measure of the light, 
however, is Cohn's light-tester, directions for the use 
of which will be found in Appendix II together with 
other suggestions for testing the light. In case neither 
the Jaeger types nor Cohn's light-tester are accessible, 
the following poem may be used at a distance not less 
than twelve inches. It should be read as rapidly at 
the point where the test is made as in good light. 



My father brought somebody up 

To show us all asleep. 
They came as softly up the stairs 

As yt'u could creep. 

They whispered in the doorway there 

And looked at us awhile. 
I had my eyes shut up, but I 

Could feel him smile. 

I shut my eyes up close, and lay 

As still as I could keep ; 
Because I knew he wanted ub 

To be asleep. 



Josephine Pbeston Peabopy. 



Having discovered desks that do not meet the re- 
quirements of any one of the above tests a teacher 



72 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

should abandon them for all fine work, or should in 
some way secure better light. Every effort should be 
made to provide adequate light at any cost. 

If this cannot be done, the poorly lighted desks 
must be condemned and removed, while on dark days 
recreative or blackboard exercises must be substituted 
for all close work. 

If the difficulty is too much light, it can easily be 
remedied. Reflections from bright surfaces coming 
to the child's eye can be cut off by shades covering 
the lower half of the windows, while the direct rays 
of the sun may be cut off by shades on the upper 
sash. 

(4) This is not the place to give directions for 
testing the eyes of children. But each teacher should 
take an inventory of the seeing quality of the eyes 
entrusted to his care.^ If weaknesses develop, inflam- 
mation, discharge, or any other form of defectiveness, 
every means should be taken to remove the defect, 
or at least to prevent its increasing. ]\Iany cases of 
myopia could be cured, if they were only discovered 
in time. It will take but three or four hours' work 
to test an entire room of fifty children. Several States 
in this country make it compulsory to test the eyes 
of all school-children at certain periods. As a result, 
hundreds of defective eyes that were previously sup- 
posed to be sound have been discovered and submitted 
to treatment. Many superintendents also require that 
* See Appendix III. for directions. 



THE TEACHER'S DUTY 73 

each child be tested soon after admission to their 
schools. 

(5) The teacher should impress upon the children, 
both by precept and practice, the necessity of taking 
the best care of their eyesight. Common vices, such 
as reading or working in the twilight, reading by the 
firelight, while lying down or facing the glare of a 
lamp, should certainly be made specific topics for 
study, while staying after school to work on dark 
days, as well as the use of fine print and too small 
and indistinct writing on the blackboard, should be 
avoided. For the good of the eye as well as the general 
health the very least possible dust should be allowed 
in a school-room. Reflections from blackboards or 
maps are frequently troublesome. The effort to see at 
a distance the names of places on maps also entails 
a strain. No reading, writing, sewing or fine work of 
any sort is to be done except in the best light available. 
If that is not good, such work should not be done at 
all. Examples of these abuses of the eyesight may 
be found even in the rooms of expert teachers, while 
others are discovered in the homes of learned pro- 
fessors. 

This brief criticism is written as a result of direct 
observation in the school-room, while the duties 
suggested must appeal to anyone interested in the 
preservation of the eyesight of the children. May 
our previous neglect point both to the errors of the 
past and the hopes of the future. 



APPENDIX I 

A MATHEMATICAL DEMONSTRATION AND ITS COROLLARY 

Although it has never to my knowledge been 
demonstrated, the mathematics of the situation will 
be evident from the following : Take the dimensions 
of a standard room for forty pupils, as indicated on 
page 31, 30 X 25 X 131/0 in feet. Suppose the desk 
farthest from the window to be at least three feet 
away from the wall. It will then be twenty-two feet 
from the window. The windows can be carried within 
half a foot of the ceiling, so that, if the desk is two 
feet high, we need to deduct two and a half feet to 
get the total height of the top of the window above 
the top of the desk, which would be in this case, 
therefore, eleven feet. 

The right-angled triangle ABC (see Fig. 32) 
formed by a point in the desk-top farthest from the 
window, its projection on the window-wall and a 
point in the top of the window vertically above 
this projection, must be similar to the triangle A'B' 
C ' formed in the same vertical plane by the top of a 
building twice as far away as it is high, by its base 
and the base of the school, because the sides, in- 
cluding the right angle in each, are proportional. 
Therefore, the corresponding sides being parallel, the 

75 



76 



THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 



hypotenuses of these triangles must be parallel, and 
the eye placed at the surface of the desk, it being 
higher than the ground, could see as many degrees 
of sky vertically as are represented by the angle B 
AB', formed between the hypotenuse of the small 
triangle and a line drawn from the desk to the top of 




Fig. 32. 



the opposite building. By proving that such an angle 
must inevitably be formed where an obstruction is 
distant not less than twice its height, we have brought 
this rule into consonance with that other which re- 
quires that the direct light of the sky be visible from 
each desk. 

Conversely, if the triangle made in a vertical plane 
by the top and base of the opposing building and 
the base of the school-house has its base less than 
twice its height, then such allowance must be made in 
the construction and use of the school-building as to 
make it possible in all first-floor class-rooms for the 
triangle made in a vertical plane by the farthest desk- 



A IVIATHEMATICAL DEMONSTRATION 77 

top, the nearest point on window-wall to it and the 
top of the window to have the same relation between 
its height and base as the larger triangle. That is, the 
ratio of BC to AC must always be equal to or greater 
than B'C toA'C, as in the above figure. 

In applying these principles to upper-floor rooms, 
the height of the room above the first floor may be 
deducted from the height of the obstruction. But, if 
the first fioor is properly lighted, there should be no 
trouble with the upper floors. 

Moreover, if the room is, or is planned to be, 
deeper than twenty-five feet, either it must be con- 
siderably above the ground level, or the desk must be 
brought nearer the window, or the top of the window 
carried higher. 



APPENDIX II 

HOW TO TEST THE LIGHT 

In testing the light, the Jaeger test-type No. 1, 
is far better that the large Snellen types, such as are 
regularly used in testing the eyes, because they can be 
used at the exact angles at which the child works, 
whereas the other must be stood up at some unnatural 
angle, receiving possibly quite different light from 
that we wish to test. 

Some years ago Dr. Herman Cohn invented a light- 
tester (Licht-Priifer). It enables one to cut off ap- 
proximately 99 per cent., 95 per cent., or 80 per cent. 
of the light. He claims one should never use 
light so dim that one could not see as well at 40 etm. 
with one fifth of it as he could with the whole of it, 
since it may easily vary more than that in a few 
minutes. Dr. Cohn found the daylight at his desk 
between 12 and 2 o'clock in November, 1898, to vary 
from 67 to 2,420 meter-candles. "Where light is bad, 
one can determine just how much nearer the object 
must be brought to the eye in order that a larger ret- 
inal image may make up for lack of light, each centi- 
metre counting in the danger to the eye. His light- 

78 



HOW TO TEST THE LIGHT 79 

tester is a decided improvement over the hit-or-miss 
use of the Jaeger types. It is eminently practical, 
fairly accurate, and deserves more notice than it has 
received, at least in this country both in schools and 
factories. It may be obtained of Fritz Tiessen, Adal- 
bertstrasse 16, Breslau, Germany, for 15 marks. 

In appearance and use it resembles a stereoscope 
but lacks the glass; and instead of double pictures 
cards with small printed figures are placed in the 
holder. This is to be kept 40 ctm. away from the eye 
unless it is desired to measure how much nearer the 
numbers must be brought to make up for lack of light. 
This description will suffice for putting the apparatus 
together, but for any interested in having directions 
in English the following digest will be sufficient: 

The investigator must first make sure that he can 
read the numbers with ease in a good light at 40 ctm. 
without the screens. Next, with the aid of an assistant 
who times him, he determines how many four-place 
figures he can read in 30 seconds, errors, if any, being 
noted by the assistant and the numbers being read 
down through the columns without using the screens. 
The figures should be read in pairs, i. e., 2463 would 
be read twenty-four sixty-three. The element of 
speed is an important part of the test, as will ap- 
pear immediately. Place the light-tester in such a 
position that the print will have the same light ordi- 
narily given the work at the point where the test is 
made. Place one of the screens between the eye and 



80 THE LIGHTIKG OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

the numbers and close the eyes for two minutes to 
accustom them to the diminished light. With the aid 
of the assistant note how many figures can be read 
in 30 seconds. If as many numbers are read and 
no more errors made than in good light in spite of 
the screen, which cuts off four-fifths of the light, the 
light is satisfactory. If not, daylight, owing to its 
variability, must be counted unsatisfactory. If the 
light meets the requirements of this test, two or even 
three screens may be used to determine whether it is 
to be classed as good or excellent. In case of a steady 
artificial light, it will be enough if the numbers can 
be read at a distance of 40 ctm. without the screens, 
as in this case there will be no variation in the light 
to be taken into account. Though the scale makes it 
very easy to determine the distance the printed num- 
bers must be brought nearer the eye that the increase 
in the size of the image on the retina may make up 
for the lack of light, there is little need of it. Every 
centimeter nearer than 40 means injury to the eye and 
all unsatisfactory desks or work places should be 
abandoned until enough additional light has been 
furnished to bring them up to the standard. 

Dr. Cohn's light-tester was made possible by Dr. 
Weber's much more accurate but complicated pho- 
tometer, which makes it possible to compare the light 
of a given place with that of a candle a metre distant. 
I have discovered no account of any records made 
with it in this country, though I suspect there have 



HOW TO TEST THE LIGHT 81 

been such in some instances without being published.^ 
In practice the Jaeger test-type is used, though often 
in a rough and unsatisfactory way, but Weber's pho- 
tometer is the most scientific measure we have of the 
light. His stereogoniometer is of much less use, as 
no measure of the number of square degrees of sky 
that can be seen from a given point will correspond 
to the amount of light received at that point. Smoke, 
point of compass, elevation, obstructions, etc., all 
necessitate a measure of the actual light itself. (See 
also page 71.) 

^ A reference to some tests made with his light-tester by myself 
■will be found on page 30. Others are in process to test the re- 
sults of soft-coal smoke. 



APPENDIX III 

HOW TO TEST THE EYES OF CHILDREN 

Snellen's test-types are ordinarily used for test- 
ing the eyes. Excellent copies of these types, with 
other material mentioned below, well mounted, will 
be sent on application by the Secretary of the Con- 
necticut State Board of Education, Hartford, Conn., 
at a nominal price. The following points are adapted 
from the circular of instructions, to be obtained from 
the same source, and from my book on the ' ' Physical 
Nature of the Child." 

1. The charts are to be kept out of sight when not 
in use. 

2. When used they are to be hung in a good light, 
neither in the sun nor in the shadow, nor in range 
with a window, but receiving a side illumination. 

3. Place the child twenty feet from the chart, and 
as each eye is to be tested separately, cover one eye 
(though it is to remain open) with a piece of paste- 
board so as not to press the eye, 

4. Have him read aloud the letters from the top 
down, and note the lowest line read correctly. Re- 
peat with the other eye. If the line designated as 
20 or XX is read, the eye is normal. If most of these, 

83 



HOW TO TEST THE EYES 83 

and some two or three letters in the line designated 
by 30 or XXX are read incorrectly with either eye, 
the eye failing should be examined by an oculist. 
In other cases, where he fails only on three or four of 
the letters designated for twenty feet, it is on the 
average as well to consider the case doubtful and 
watch it for future developments, favoring the child 
on his light meanwhile. 

5. A chart of E's is used where children do not 
know their letters. The teacher should stand by the 
chart and point out the different characters, asking 
which is the open side. It is well to have the child 
indicate the open side by a gesture of the hand in the 
direction corresponding to that side. A whole room 
may be drilled in advance in this exercise by E 's put 
on the blackboard in all sorts of positions. 

6. In all charts teachers must be careful not to 
mark them with lead-pencil as letters are pointed out. 

7. If a teacher suspects that answers are being 
made from memory, a hole about one and a half 
inches square may be cut in a piece of cardboard, 
and this may be used to cover the lines, exposing only 
one or two letters at a time through the hole. By 
applying this rapidly at various points, this difficulty 
may be obviated. 

8. The five cautions needed are: 

a. Hang the card in a good light. 

b. Keep it clean, free from finger or lead-pencil 
marks. 



84 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

c. Keep it out of sight when not in use. 

d. Test one eye at a time. 

e. See that the other eye is properly covered. 

Experience in schools with various methods of test- 
ing have demonstrated, I believe conclusively, the 
following : 

1. Testing children by the method of different dis- 
tances is very little more accurate and much more 
difficult than by placing the child at twenty feet and 
letting him tell what he can see of the test card. If 
he can see nothing, other distances need be tried only 
to make sure he understands what he is expected to 
do or to try to do. 

2. The E chart is the most satisfactory for younger 
children. 

3. Parents should be notified wherever children are 
found to be defective, and urged, if necessary, to con- 
sult an oculist. But percentages or fractions indi- 
cating the degree of defect result in clashes between 
the oculist and the teacher, besides giving a halo of 
accuracy to the latter 's results which they should not 
pretend to possess. 

4. Tests of focusing power and astigmatism are ab- 
solutely unsatisfactory in teachers' hands and add 
nothing to the regular test. 

5. Tests with a small type may be useful in proving 
that children can see who claim not to be able to see 
their writing when proper position is maintained. 

6. Either large or small type may be used to ascer- 



HOW TO TEST THE EYES 85 

tain whether the light is sufficient at any given point 
or not. Whenever there is doubt in case of some 
seats, whether due to soft-coal smoke, late afternoon 
hours, or other adverse conditions, tests should be 
made at those seats. See Appendix II. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1. Municipal Architecture in Boston. Edited by Francis W. 

Chandler. Boston, 1S9S. (Contains a special chapter on 
school-buildings, with a large number of plates and plans 
of school-houses drawn by Edmund M. Wheelwright, City 
Architect 1891 to 1895.) 

2. Briggs: Modern American School Buildings. New York, 

1899. (Shows a consistent and successful effort to work 
out unilateral lighting from the left.) 

3. Risley: Chapter on School Hygiene, in Norris and Oliver's 

Sj^stem of Disease of the Eye. Lippincott, 1897. (An 
excellent, practical discussion of lighting of school build- 
ings.) 

4. Burnham: Outlines of School Hygiene. Pedagogical Sem- 

inary, Vol. II., No. 1, Worcester, Mass., 1892. (An ex- 
cellent summary of the investigations on the subject of 
lighting is to be found here.) 

5. Cohn: Hygiene of the Eye. London, 1886. (Among the 

first to investigate scientifically the lighting of school- 
buildings.) 

6. EuLENBERG and Bach: Schulgesundheitslehre. Second 

edition. Berlin, 1900. (This is the latest and most prac- 
tical of the three standard German works on School 
Hygiene.) 

7. Baginsky: Handbuch der Schulhygiene. Third edition. 

Stuttgart, 1898 (first volume), and 1900 (second volume). 
(Deals more generally with the principles underlying the 
form of lighting.) 

87 



88 THE LIGHTING OF SCHOOL-ROOMS 

8. BuRGERSTEiN und Netolitzsky: Handbuch der Schul- 

hygiene. Jena, 1895. (Very good.) 

9. Javal: Daylight in the Schoolroom. New York. (A good 

work. Advocates right and left lighting.) 

10. Kotelmann: School Hygiene. Syracuse, N. Y., 1899. 

(Contains a good but short chapter on lighting, includ- 
ing a description of Weber's Photometer.) 

11. ZwEz: Das Schulhaus und dessen innere Einrichtung. 

Weimar, 1870. (Discusses at length the question of the 
most favorable points of compass.) 

12. Robson: School Architecture. London, 1877. (The 

most eminent English authority, but out of date.) 

13. Barnard: School Architecture. Hartford, 1854. (Its 

first publication in the Connecticut Common School 
Journal in 1842 marked the beginning of attention to this 
subject in this country.) 

14. Young: Annual Report for 1891 of Maine State Board of 

Health. (Urges northerly lighting for the steadiness of 
the light.) 

15. Rowe: Physical Nature of the Child and How to Study It. 

New York, 1899. (Gives directions for testing eyesight.) 

16. Morrison: School Architecture and Hygiene. In Edu- " 

cation in the United States, edited by Dr. Butler. New 
York, 1900. (Contains some plates illustrating best 
forms of school-buildings.) 

17. Marble: Sanitary Conditions for School-houses. Wash- 

ington, D. C, 1889. (Touches lighting only briefly.) 

18. Woodbridge: Report on the Hygienic Condition of the 

Public School Buildings of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 
1897. (Shows our common violation of principles of 
lighting.) 

19. Hand-buch der Architektiir. Edited by Durm et alt. 

Darmstadt, 1889. (Objects to ribbed or corrugated glass.) 

LcFC. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 89 

20. Cohn: Die Selileistungen von 50,000 Breslauer Schulkin- 

dern. Breslau, 1S99. (A valuable piece of work.) 

21. Weber: Band X., Heft I, and Band XI., Heft 1 of the 

Schriften des naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins fiir Schles- 
wig-Holstein. (Contains results of his photometric tests 
for variations in the light.) 

22. Wheelwright: School Architecture. Boston, 1901. (An 

excellent handbook, but does not treat the subject of 
lighting at all fully or systematically.) 

23. Burrage and Bailey: School Sanitation and Decoration. 

Boston, 1899. (Contains good suggestions for the color of 
walls and ceilings, but incomplete on lighting.) 



VARIOUS KINDS OF WINDOW MA- 
TERIAL, WITH THE MAN- 
UFACTURERS OF THE 
SAME 

Glass: Supplied by local glaziers usually. 

Sash: Made generally by local carpenters or builders. 

Iron Beams for Mullions: Cambria Steel Manufacturing Co., 

Pittsburg, Pa. In general any large steel manufacturing 

company. 
Iron Mullions (Briggs): Yale Safe and Iron Co., New 

Haven, Conn. 
Revolving Sash: BoUes' Revolving and Sliding Sash Co., 

New York. 
Sash Spring Balances: Caldwell Spring Balance Co., New 

Yorii; Pullman Sash Balance Co., Rochester, N. Y 
Prism Glass: American Luxfer Prism Co., New York. 
Reflectors: D. Schuldener, New York. 
Glass Blocks (Glasbausteine) : Jean Wimmersberg, Cologne, 

Germany. 
Venetian Blinds: James Godfrey Wilson, New York. 
Shades Any dealer can supply the Standard Hand-made Tint 

or the Bancroft Sun-fast Holland. 
HoLOPHANE Glass Globes or Shades: Holophane Glass Co., 

New York. 
Light-Tester (Cohn): Fritz Tiessen, Adalbertstrasse 16, Bres- 

lau, Germany. 



90 



INDEX 



Aim of the lighting, 21 

Air, 31, 43 

Air-space, 31, 32 

Arching of windows, 44, 60, 

65 
Architect, vii, 8, 15, 19, 20 &., 

38 
Architecture, vi, 5, 8, 41, 44 
Arrangement of rooms, 25 fT., 

61,62 
Art rooms, 40, 41 
Artificial distribution of light, 

54 
Artificial illumination, 57, 80 
Assembly rooms, 25 
Astigmatism, 84 
Awnings, 57 

Bad positions, 67 

Bailey, 49 

Bancroft Sun-fast Holland 

curtain material, 50 
Basement rooms, 11 
Bevelling, 45 ff., 60, 63 
Bilateral lighting, 34 ff., 38, 

40 
Blackboards, 49, 64 
Blinders, 70 
Blind walls, 16, 24, 38 
Books, 36, 37 



Briggs, 27, 45, 46, 63 
Burnham, Dr., 27 
Burrage, 30 
Buyers of land, 8, 19 

Cause of defective lighting, 59 
Cautions in testing eyes, 83 

ff. 
Ceilings, 41, 49 ff. 
Class-rooms, 25, 27 
Clear glass, 48, 55 
Cleaning windows, 40 
Cohn, Dr. Hermann, viii, 28, 

29, 47, 78 
Cold climates, 43 
Color of ceiling and side-walls, 

49,61 
Columns, 48 
Common vices, 73 
Constructing a new building, 

20 ff. 
Corner lots, 15, 16 
Corner rooms, 29, 38 
Corrugated glass, 54 
Country schools. See Rural 

schools 
Cross-lights, 44 
Curtaining blackboards, 49, 

61 
Curtains, vii, 31, 36 



n 



92 



INDEX 



Dark days, 21, 37, 38 

Defective eyesight, 8 

Desks, 20, 21, 36, 55, 61, 63, 

64, 70 ff. 
Devices, 60 

Diffusion of artificial liglit, 58 
Dimensions of rooms, 31 
Direction of the frontage, 17 
Dirt, 55 
Double curtain shades, 50, 

52, 53, 57 
Double windows, 43 

E-CHARTS, 83, 84 
Electricity, 57 
Eulenberg & Bach, 56 
Eyes, 4 ff., 33, 62, 68, 82 ff. 

Facing the light, 4, 33, 34, 

60 
Floor space, 27, 28, 30, 42, 43 
Forster, 30 
Focusing power, 84 
Frontage, 17, 81 
Full-quadrangle building, 24 
Furnishing rooms, 51 

Gas, 57 ff. 

Germany, 5, 18, 55, 70, 79 

Glass, 29, 30 

Glass brick, 29, 55, 66 

Glasses, 7, 69 

Glass floors, 29 

Ground floor, 11,76 

Ground glass, 47 

Half-quadrangle building, 
16, 24, 26 



"Hand -made Tint" curtain 
• shades, 50 
Heating, 19 
Hennig's reflector, 56 
Holophane globe, 58 
Hood, 43 

H-shaped building, 15, 18, 
24 ff. 

Inside blinds, 50 

Iron beam, 29 

Irritation of retina, 35, 49 

Jaeger test types, 59, 71, 78 

Kerosene, 57 ff. 

Land, 8, 13, 15, 19 

Light from wrong direction, 

30, 64 
Light- tester, 30, 39, 50, 71, 78 
Lighting from above, 40, 64 
Lighting from front, 33, 65 
Ligliting from left, 33 ff., 36, 

60 
Lighting from left and rear, 34 

ff., 37, 38ff., 40, 51,65 
Lighting from rear, 33 
Lighting from riglit, 33 
Lighting from right and left, 

34 ff., 40, 65 
Lighting from right and rear, 

34,51 
Lintels, 45 

Location of the light, 32 ff., 60 
Location of the windows, 41 
Lot, 14, 15 

L-shaped building, 17, 24 
Lowest floor, 19 



INDEX 



93 



" Modern American School 
Buildings," by Briggs, 45 

MuUions, 29, 44 ff., 06 

Mr. Straight and Mr. Crooked, 
69 

Myopia, 5 ff., 47, 72 

Ne.\r-sight, 4 ff. 
Neighboring buildings, 11 
New York City, 46, 54 
Northeast, 17 
Northwest, 17 

Oblong building, 24 
Obstructions, vi, 11 ff., 18, 19, 

27, 30, 38, 51, 59, 60 ff., 75 

ff.,81 
One-floor buildings, 40 
Outside windows, 43 
Overhead lighting, 40, 41, 64 

Paper, 6 
Partitions, 35, 63 
Philadelphia, 6 
Photometer, 39, 80 
"Physical Nature of the 

Child," by Rowe, 82 
Piers, 35,43, 44 ff., 60, 66 
Pillars, 48, 66 
Plastering, 49 

Principles, v, 9, 10, 25, 59, 77 
Prism glass, 54 ff., 58, 61, 63 
Private schools, 4 

Re.vding, 33, 35, 54, 67 
Reducing the light, 30, 50 
Relation of window space to 

floor space, 27 ff., 34, 39, 42 

ff., 59, 64 



Reflectors, 55, 56, 58, 61, 63 

Reflections from bright sur- 
faces, 30, 41, 65, 72, 73 

Remodelling an old building, 
59 ff. 

Revolving sash, 40 

Ril:)bed glass, 54 

Risley, 3 ff. 

Robson, 43 

Rough-plate, 47 

Rural schools, 35, 40 

Sanitary requirements, 20 ff. 

Sanitary science, 4 

Sashes, 31,43 

School Itygiene, 10 

Seats, 6 

Selection of the site, 10 

Sewing, 73 

Shades, vii, 36, 37, 50 ff., 68, 

70 
Shadows, 4, 35, 36, 37, 44, 60 
Side-walls, 43, 49 ff. 
Site, 8 ff., 19, 44 
Size of site, 11 

Sky, 11,12,24,30,39,55, 76 
Smoke, 38,39,81,85 
Snyder, Architect C. B. J., 26, 

58 
Soft-coal, 38, 39,40,41,85 
Soot, 40 

South side, 17, 24, 25 
Southeast rooms, 17 
Southwest rooms, 17 
Square building, 24 
Standard rooms, 31 ff., 42 
Stereogomometer, 81 
Streets, 15, 16 



94 



INDEX 



Structure of window, 44 
Sun, 13, 17, 36, 40, 50, 55, 57, 68 
Sunlight, 13, 17, 50 
Switzerland, 30 

Teacher, vii, 9, 30, 35, 39, 41, 

67 ff. 
Testing the eye, 9, 68, 72, 82 ff. 
Testing the light, 9, 30, 71 ff., 

78 ff. 
Too meagre window surface, 63 
Too much light, 30 
Too small a site, 19 
Top floors, 40 

Top of window, 44, 60, 65, 75 
Type of building, 15, 16, 19, 

21 ff. 
Typical deficiencies, 61 

Unforeseen obstructions, 51 
Unilateral lighting, 30, 33 ff., 
38, 40 



Unity of the light, 38, 44 

Upper floors, 44, 77 

Upper part of windows, 41, 43 

Variation in daylight, 78, 80 
Venetian blinds, 51, 57 
Ventilating, 19, 20, 32, 43 
Voice of teacher, 32 

Wasted light, 62 
Weber, 80 

Width of window, 44 
Windows, 25, 44 ff. 
Window boxes, 45, 46 
Window space, 27 ff., 42, 43 
Window surface, 39, 63 
Wooden mullions, 29 
Writing, 33, 34, 35, 37, 54, 67, 
73 

Zero weather, 43 



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